No judgement here: cat filters FTW

HAPPY ANNIVERSARY...TO OUR INNERCIRCLE!

That’s right, it’s been one full year of welcoming us into your inboxes. We’re so honoured to hit this milestone! Every month hundreds of readers from across industries far and wide check in on Smart industries and technologies.

It’s crazy to think our first issue highlighted our love of coffee from the comfort of our office. We shared how companies were moving toward flex working, though it was still an emerging trend. How things have changed!

Who knew that in just a few months remote working would be universal and the urgency to build flexible and hybrid work strategies would be accelerated?

EVERYONE'S TALKING ABOUT IT: THE FUTURE OF OFFICES

We’re enthusiastic about the work you are all doing to rethink the future of work, redefine the purpose of your office space, and create services to better support your employees, culture and corporate objectives.

There’s no rulebook to creating the future office. We see clients with varied approaches all aiming to define what value the office will have for the new working paradigm.

As we’ve discussed, employees want to return to the office – and will. Few are prepared to completely abandon the office space. But the office now must offer a new sense of purpose – one that brings even greater meaning to flex work and support for our overall health, far beyond infection concerns alone. People seek human connection and meaningful collaboration, an important subject we are working on right now for articles in the pipeline.

This, in turn, means new expectations for both employers and building owners. One notable trend surfacing from these new expectations is a spiking demand for trimmer, high-end offices that cater to a company’s specific needs. In fact, in Q4 of last year, 69 per cent of new Manhattan leases were for “trophy spaces.” This is not a surprising development, since 27 per cent of typical corporate office space sits unused, as our CEO James Wu reported at the 2019 Collision conference (which seems forever ago).

WHAT ABOUT OCCUPANCY DATA?

Occupancy data is also a trending subject these days: some reports show that two-thirds of companies are already looking to measure occupancy in some capacity. Occupancy is a great baseline metric for understanding the number of people on-site at any time, and understanding general people/sq-ft metrics. But it is only the first piece of the puzzle in redesigning offices to best support employees.

Forward-thinking clients are looking far beyond occupancy data to explore utilization patterns, employee behaviors, resource vacancy, and frequency of visits. With InnerSpace, our clients are looking at how teams leverage the office and are redesigning their space based on those needs. Indoor location data is a game-changer for workplace experience – and it will be a vital tool in bouncing back from the pandemic.

NEW IN SMART TECH

It would seem that the Smart tech industry is becoming quite versatile.

In the world of health-care, we find companies like EPIC striving to implement AI solutions that would facilitate Smart electronic health records. Meanwhile, dentists are trying to keep continuity in care via Smart dental technology that can help diagnose emerging issues, facilitate teledentistry, and more.

How about Smart fire engines? Newly designed systems make a firefighter’s job easier and safer by automating the level of water pumped from hydrants and sent through to hoses. And with the environment top of mind, we flag some interesting developments on Smart coral reef conservation in Australia, and Smart wind turbines in the U.S. The latter is courtesy of a Colorado startup whose tech can help save eagles from being struck by spinning blades.

IN OUR SPACE ...

Pleased to be featured among a deep roster of great companies reshaping the real estate industry in the first Canadian PropTech Report.
InnerSpace aims to make data digestible. Find out more about one of our most popular metrics, People Overview. This measures the total number of people in a space. Unique to InnerSpace: this number is broken down to reveal new visitors vs. returning ones.

One recent hearing didn’t go so purrfectly for one lawyer whose feline filter gave us all a much-needed chuckle.