What is the Creative Workplace November 29, 2007

Is the workplace stifling creativity?
Experts to draw up plan for the future of the creative workplace

Is your workplace snuffing out your creativity? Do creative people need
an ideas friendly workspace to be truly innovative? What role can office design play in helping improve performance? These are some of the questions that will be discussed during a unique conference being held at Central Saint Martins Innovation on Friday 30 November 2007.

Called What is the Creative Workplace – challenges for design, business and strategic HR in the knowledge economy, the conference will bring together leading figures from the worlds of design, architecture, art education and management to discuss a range of key issues that are likely to influence the future direction of workplace design.

Areas under discussion will include:
· How can modern workplaces be adapted to deal with the challenges of flatter hierarchies, more mobile workers and a greater reliance on problem solving teamwork?
· How can the UK’s outdated work environments compete with the progressive designs of international competitors?
· The importance of people, organisations and buildings working in harmony to optimise effectiveness at every level
· How can we assess and evaluate the performance of the workplace?

Conference delegates will also have the opportunity to see and try out interactive technology that monitors the physical conditions of the workplace, including temperature and light levels, and the mood and opinions of workers. The wireless sensor technology formed part of a two year £1 million project funded by the Technology Strategy Board. The project, called Building Awareness of Enhanced Workplace Performance (BOP), is just one of a number of new methods of capturing and expressing the relationship between people and their workplaces.

A highly influential group of speakers will be speaking at the conference including Dr Frank Duffy who founded international design consultancy DEGW; Charles Leadbeater, a leading authority on innovation and creativity. He has advised companies, cities and governments around the world on innovation strategy; John Letherland, from the leading UK architecture practice Terry Farrell & Partners; also invited to speak are Prof. James Woudhuysen, Professor of Forecasting and Innovation at De Montfort University, Leicester and Todd Reisz, from the internationally renowned Office for Metropolitan Architecture (OMA),
The Netherlands.

Frank Duffy, Founder and Director of International design consultancy DEGW says:
"Where would you rather work? Dilbertville, Canary Wharf or among the creative communities in Soho? Architects are getting in the way of the emerging reality of the 21st century workplace which is a complex, networked organism that extends from the clunky, physical world to the virtual world and, like the city, thrives on permeable social spaces.”

Tickets cost £100 – £200.

For tickets please call 0207 269 1606 or visit http://www.cochranetheatre.co.uk/book.php?showid=7.

Further information about the Bop Project can be found at http://www.bop-uk.com.

Official Website: http://www.bop-uk.com/conference