TCW was set to showcase three new manufacturers during Friday and Saturday’s InDesign showroom tours. Loose furnishings by UK’s Naughtone and Finland’s LoOok Industries added a colourful splash of breakout furniture throughout the space, while Teknion featured its collaborative bench system, Interpret, and innovative presentation technology, CLUBtalk.
Teknion is the latest addition to TCW’s list of exclusive brands. It is a Canadian-headquartered, global leader in commercial furniture and, along with TCW, is well equipped to serve multi-national and regional companies alike. Other established brands on display included: Actiu, Dauphin, Markant, Anon&Co, and Colebrook Bosson Saunders, among several others.
Once the dust was cleared and upgraded corporate branding in place, TCW inaugurated it’s new space with a Friday evening WorkLife Seminar titled “Big Data & Smart Buildings.” The evening’s panel featured some of TCWs most prolific speakers to date – Jeremy Pollack (POMT), Kellie Payne (Bates Smart), Peter McCamley (Incorp Property Solutions Group) and Brent Harman (Atlassian).
With moderation by the eloquent Max Thomson (Spitfire Control), the panelists addressed the integration of technology into structures, answering the question, “How can smart technology and big data be intelligently and sensitively deployed to improve workplaces while being sensitive to concerns around privacy and personal control.”
Is ‘Earl’, the UPS driver who’s paid extra to generate data via tracking his every movement, the way of the future? Or is the white-collar workspace already generating this data through our innate dependency on technology?
If a new space and new products weren’t enough, TCW once again participated in the The Project – InDesign’s art installation competition. This year’s chosen theme was Ritual and, in line with the current trend toward activity-based workplaces, TCW interpreted the theme by transforming its showroom into a journey through modern daily rituals.
The Project started with everybody’s favourite morning ritual (coffee, of course!) and led attendees through physical movement (an acrobatic yoga workshop), collaboration (team building exercises), play (who doesn’t like a photo booth?) and concluded at an offering station. Here guests were encouraged to set a ritual they wished to incorporate into their own daily lives, scroll it onto a ribbon and tied it off to a colourful sacred archway.
“It’s what we wish for our clients,” Director Kasim Ali-Khan said, “The opportunity to create workspaces that accommodate everyone’s unique habits, work styles, rituals.
Now, how the baker managed to match our new logo colour so closely, that I won’t understand,” continued Kasim with a chuckle before biting into one of the best Pantone 7409 donuts we’ve tasted.