On April 3, nearly 100 workplace leaders from across North America gathered at Convene Rockefeller Center for a packed day of conversations, insights, and connections at Flex/25 New York. The event welcomed real estate, facilities, and technology executives who were eager to connect with peers, learn about trending worktech innovations, and learn best practices for navigating the changing work environment.
Conversations at Flex/25 New York reflected a broad cross-section of industries facing similar workplace challenges. In a live audience poll, most attendees identified their organizations as financial and professional services (43%), followed by technology (23%), public sector, and industrial businesses. While their industries varied, a shared focus emerged: the need for better ways to streamline workplace operations.
Moving AI from abstract to actionable
Eptura CEO Brandon Holden’s keynote emphasized that with shifting worker demographics and organizations pressured to do more with less, businesses are turning their focus to consolidating and integrating worktech systems. He framed Eptura’s vision as building an “operating system for the workplace,” uniting people, places, and assets through intelligence and automation. For enterprises, that means visibility into what’s happening and the ability to act on it, improving space utilization, employee experience, and operational decision-making at scale.
Eptura’s Chief Market Officer Meg Swanson shared four best practices on how organizations are realizing this vision.
- Policies requiring in-office attendance 2-3 days per week should include either a Friday or a Monday coupled with physical check-in at the office to level occupancy during the working week.
- Implement team days to increase visibility to who is in the office to nudge team members to attend and centralize seating to create energy within the space.
- Create a seamless connection between in-office workers and facility management repairs by integrating work order requests into mobile apps.
- Setting a cross-functional AI roadmap for the workplace to reduce everyday friction for employees and workplace teams.
The excitement about AI isn’t just about new tech — it’s about the possibilities it can unlock. Whether it’s automatically booking workspace, coordinating team days, or managing building access, AI can mean fewer manual steps for team members and more adaptable workplaces that respond in real time.
Reeves Davis, President of Technology Solutions at JLL Technologies, challenged leaders to align their AI strategies with business value, not novelty. He noted that we “so often roll out tech like we’re collecting badges. But AI should be about creating real business value, not checking boxes.” He emphasized that AI will only deliver if the foundations — data, structure, strategy — are in place, reminding attendees that AI isn’t a shortcut. It’s an amplifier.
Fireside chats illustrated how workplace leaders are successfully implementing change
Flex/25 New York featured a series of fireside chats with professionals from Synovus, Arup, and Linea Architects. These sessions addressed transformation, including what it takes to open a new HQ, standardize workplace experience and technology globally, or design for the future of the built environment.
Lisa Ames, Regional Facilities Manager for Synovus, talked about the launch of the company’s new corporate headquarters in Columbus, Georgia. A southeastern regional bank that grew from community banking to manage over $60B in financial assets, Synovus recently moved into an intentionally designed live/work/play environment with a focus on amenities to draw people back to the office. The business thinks of this space as a way to reenergize teams, get them out of old habits, and reconnect colleagues with one another. Ames emphasized that as the newness wears off, amenities won’t necessarily act as a lasting draw to the office, but connection will.
As part of the lessons learned from the process, she emphasized that human change management is just as critical as technical enablement. She spoke candidly about how reintroducing employees to shared spaces — many of whom were not familiar with hot desking — required hands-on training and patience.
Mark Just, Head of Technology Services at Arup, spoke about their focus on unifying workplace experience and operational technology across 90 offices and 20,000 team members by bringing distinctive regions together under a cohesive strategy. Arup has transitioned to an agile environment and moved 80% of its technology to the cloud, which has helped in streamlining its diverse tech estate.
Previously, each region operated independently, managing their own technology and workplace needs with limited budgets, leading to a disparate system landscape. This meant that when employees traveled between global offices, they experienced different technology to access and book spaces, as well as different workspace types and inconsistent layouts. Following a directive to increase in-office time, Arup found that as a member-owned organization, teams are excited to come together in person but that inconsistent workplace experiences are currently a barrier. To address this, Arup’s vision is to standardize globally, which starts with creating clear requirements and securing buy-in and agreement across the organization.
Barbara Calamusa, owner of Linea Architects, advised leaders in her fireside chat to have a flexible mindset when it comes to how spaces are designed and used. “Younger generations have different expectations,” she said — an observation she’s been able to make after designing millions of square feet of office space in New York since her firm’s inception in 1987.
The focus on how spaces are designed, operated, and experienced came to life during the back-of-house tour of Convene Rockefeller Center. Attendees had the chance to go behind the scenes of a high-performing, hospitality-forward workplace venue, observing firsthand how flexible design, seamless technology, and day-to-day operations align to support a modern workforce. From visitor flow to service logistics, the tour grounded many of the day’s discussions in a tangible example of what’s possible when experience and infrastructure are deeply integrated.
A shift from tech stack overload to unified intelligence
Many attendees shared that they’re managing many workplace tools at once — often 15 or more. But when these tools don’t talk to each other, it’s hard to get a clear picture of operations or make decisions for the future, such as real estate portfolio needs or capital investments on building assets. That message echoed throughout the day and was reinforced by findings in Eptura’s newly released 2025 Workplace Index report, which revealed that over 50% of organizations are currently using an average of 17 standalone worktech solutions.
At Flex/25 New York, the focus wasn’t on adding more tech — it was on making better connections between systems that already exist. Eptura’s speakers communicated the value of integration not just as an IT initiative, but as a strategy to unlock smarter outcomes across the business.
Attendees participated in an interactive activity to explore what “unifying workplace operations” could mean across departments. Grouped into teams, attendees worked together to identify how finance, IT, facilities, and the C-suite could align around shared goals and what roadblocks they might face along the way. The session sparked meaningful conversations about ownership, accountability, and the cultural shifts required to break free from departmental silos. For many, it was a chance to reframe the idea of workplace operations as not just infrastructure, but a key facilitator across the business.
Virginia Senf, Director of AEC Data Strategy at Autodesk, described the problem of data silos, illustrating how most companies are sitting on mountains of data, but it’s scattered, inconsistent, and underutilized.
“We’ve reached a tipping point where the volume of data isn’t the issue. It’s the fragmentation. We need structured, standardized data to make AI work and to stop paying to rework the same info in 20 different places,” she highlighted.
For many workplace teams, solving for structure and clarity is the first real step toward automation. Eptura and Autodesk’s strategic partnership supports a full building lifecycle management process where critical data is shared from architects, engineers, and contractors to facility and asset owners and operators.
Virginia Miracle, Eptura’s Chief Customer Officer, built on this by sharing how Eptura is enabling businesses to get more value from their existing technology. Through support redesign, AI-enabled service, and better customer education, Eptura is helping reduce friction and giving customers confidence in their tools and their data.
Matt Fox, VP of Product Management, added that integration is about user experience. He described how enterprise teams are losing time to inefficient booking, reactive maintenance, and poor service visibility. Through unified workplace tools, Eptura is enabling facilities and IT teams to go from chasing issues to anticipating needs. That shift allows organizations to be more responsive to employee expectations and more efficient with their resources.
Hybrid realities, shifting expectations, and a new perspective on sustainability
According to data from the latest Workplace Index report, 34% of companies plan to increase the number of in-office days in 2025. With that shift comes a new set of opportunities — particularly in space optimization, employee engagement, sustainability, and operational efficiency. A live poll at Flex/25 New York showed that over half of attendees (51%) identified sustainability as one of their organization’s top workplace outcomes, second only to operational efficiency. This reflects a meaningful shift: sustainability is moving from being a compliance checklist to a strategic business driver, especially as leaders look to make hybrid work functional and future-ready.
Tony Gelber, Director of Administrative Sustainability and Energy Management at Pratt Institute, discussed sustainability and capital spending, showing how emissions goals, New York City’s energy and carbon laws, and smart building operations can coexist during a time where such investments are hard to justify. He noted that “there’s a lot of opportunity to use software to manage these goals better and more efficiently.”
Fred Kraus, Eptura’s VP of Product Management for asset management, pointed out that the ability to operate more sustainably starts with knowing how and where your assets are performing or underperforming. He shared that organizations using predictive maintenance and mobile-first technician tools are not only extending the lifespan of critical infrastructure but also saving hours of labor each week. For customers, this means shifting from reactive firefighting to strategic foresight — cutting costs while also meeting carbon goals and uptime expectations.
Other discussions centered around levelling out mid-week attendance peaks, giving employees more agency over their workplace experience, and using AI and analytics to adapt office spaces in real time. Many expressed that they’re no longer debating whether hybrid is here to stay — they’re focused on how to make it better.
By Gabi Bellairs-Lombard
Gabi is a London-based writer with 8 years of experience in copywriting and strategy across various verticals. She has been immersed in tech for two years, previously writing for a fintech company. Her specialities lie in long- and short-form writing, SEO writing and strategy, and market research. In her current role at Eptura, she covers the latest worktech and workplace experience trends.
