It was great to be back at the Facilities Show 2022 in London’s Excel last week. Numerous Magenta staff attended to see some familiar faces, and some new. It was always going to be difficult for the first post-covid Facilities Show to live up to pre-pandemic hopes, but the exhibition facilitated that much needed human connection – the first time many visitors have reunited in three years. We enjoyed the buzz of the event and the chance to chat with so many exhibitors, FM peers and reporters.
At Magenta we were struck by how much better industry events are when they’re in person. We bumped into so many people we hadn’t seen since pre-pandemic; those serendipitous moments led to everything from feeing inspired by their success, to discovering there’s an opportunity to collaborate.
The conversation
The speaking programme delivered some interesting content and engaging presenters. There’s no doubt that bagging Louis Theroux as a final day keynote speaker was a huge crowd pleaser!
Our MD Jo Sutherland was blown away by the crowd that attended the ‘Sustainability in FM and achieving Environmental Social Governance’ panel discussion that she chaired on day two of the show. A full house showed how invested the FM community is in doing the right thing for each other and the environment.
ESG is clearly top of the agenda for a lot of companies. The FM industry has a significant responsibility to help clients from a wide variety of sectors to reach their ESG goals and make a positive impact on the planet. We’re looking forward to attending more ESG events this year as the FM community forges ahead on the sustainability journey.
The ‘Repurposing existing office space for new ways of working’ panel was timely for the situation many organisations find themselves in. The panel, facilitated by Mike Brooman, CEO at Vanti, discussed current global occupancy trends. Panellists from Freespace, WILL+Partners and Just East shared their expertise about how to combine the virtual with the physical, advice for upspeccing a space and catering for a multigenerational workforce.
We look forward to attending more events throughout 2022 now the world has opened back up.
For regular event recaps, check the ‘sector news‘ section of our blog.
