Symposia

NewWOW's 8th Symposium, WORK2020, was held in Santa Clara, California in February 2010. Its theme was The Effect of Higher Oil Prices on the Future of Work. Participants from countries around the world discussed the implications of peak oil on the workplace and the nature of work. Our initial thinking about the subject was inspired by two books, Why Your World Is About to Get a Whole Lot Smaller – Oil and the End of Globalization by Jeff Rubin and $20 Per Gallon: How the Inevitable Rise in the Price of Gasoline Will Change Our Lives for the Better by Christopher Steiner.

Symposium 7, planned for June 7 through 10, 2009, will address Change Management for New Ways of Working. This theme follows the result of our 2008 Alternative Workplace Benchmark Study, which found that the top two barriers concerned change management: "Manager Concerns," and "Organizational Change." Dr. Terri Griffith will present an overview of the topic, followed by a series of discussion groups on aspects such as: types of changes required, change management strategies and tactics, and measuring success.

The theme of our January 2009 symposium was Generation Y and the Workplace. It featured an in-progress report from the OXYGENZ research team of Maria Puyabaraud of Johnson Controls, Jay Brand and Sally Augustin of Haworth, and Simon Russell of IDEA. The OXYGENZ research seeks to understand how important the workplace is to attracting, recruiting and retaining Generational Y workers. The team created an engaging online survey which visually creates their ideal workplace and provides an original way to reach this group.

Thirty-eight members and colleagues attended the January 2009 symposium in Palo Alto, California. The theme was Generation Y and the Workplace. It featured an in-progress report from the OXYGENZ research team of Maria Puyabaraud of Johnson Controls, Jay Brand and Sally Augustin of Haworth, and Simon Russell of IDEA. The OXYGENZ research seeks to understand how important the workplace is to attracting, recruiting and retaining Generational Y workers. The team created an engaging online survey which visually creates their ideal workplace and provides an original way to reach this group.

NewWOW’s fifth symposium was held July 13 through July 16, 2008 in San Jose, California. The group explored the impact of culture on best practices for distributed work groups. Our keynoter was Professor Pamela Hinds of Stanford University, who also prepared a research paper on the subject for the Symposium. Her research helped us understand how culture could affect perception and acceptance of distributed work practices, and by implication, whether different work practices would be needed when distant teams included people from different cultures.

NewWOW’s Symposim IV is scheduled for February 3 through 6, 2008. The Symposium theme will be “Work Practices and Processes for New Ways of Working.” Eric Richert, formerly Vice President of iWork at Sun Microsystems and now at 8 Corners Consulting, is preparing a draft document describing the work practices that are preconditions for distributed work.

Attendees at the first annual New Ways of Working symposium, held May 31 – June 2, 2006 in San Jose, California, came to learn more about emerging workstyles and share their expertise on collaboration. Thought leaders from a variety of disciplines discussed The Challenge of a Distributed Workforce.

The conference was organized around a series of roundtable discussions, with attendees actively participating in one or more panels to kick-start the discussion.

SYMPOSIUM III was held on July 29th through 31, 2007. It began with a reception and dinner on Sunday night, and ended with a luncheon on Tuesday. The event was held at the Dolce Hayes Mansion, a beautiful historic resort in San Jose California, which was the site of our first symposium. The theme was Sustainability Through New Ways of Working.

The second NewWOW Symposium was held January 21-23, 2007 at the historic Asilomar Conference Grounds in Pacific Grove, California. The highly interactive discussions explored the role of place in a distributed world. Twenty five thought leaders from a variety of disciplines discussed and argued about whether place still mattered. Participants spent an event-laden two days learning together and sharing their knowledge about the changing workplace.