Culture, technology and space working together.
300 people. Two days. One living workplace.
Culture, technology and space working together.
300 people. Two days. One living workplace.
Work Beyond Walls captures the spirit of revolution happening in our workplaces. The walls that once set the confines of our working lives have fallen — and that is an opportunity to reshape how, and where, we work.
Our purpose: to unite designers, business leaders, academia and facilities professionals to make the North East the UK’s leading region for workplace excellence, wellbeing and performance.
Two days, 300 people, one experiment — run as a not-for-profit initiative for the region.
You don’t walk around it. You join in. Four movements across two days.
A curated programme of Insight Talks exploring the future of design, workplace and beyond — global thought leaders and regional voices.
Interactive sessions embedded in real settings, on real furniture. Sit in it, test it, converse in it — deeper understanding, stronger connections.
WorkPulse reads the room in real time. 300 people shaping the North East’s only live workplace dataset, with insight that lives on beyond the event.
A laid-back closing social — street food, drinks and a geet canny atmosphere, bringing the community closer.
Talks, panels and provocations. Named voices with a point of view on how we should work next.
Not “what tasks happen here?” but “what relationships does this building need to create?”
For decades we designed workplaces around activities. Bertie’s argument is that activity is no longer the right unit of design. As AI reshapes how work gets done, the organisations furthest along are leaning harder on their buildings — for coordination, learning and holding culture together. He introduces the Relational Workplace: a framework for aligning workplace strategy with what HR and business leaders are actually measured on.
Every session below is booked. Names and full descriptions are published as each speaker’s brand sign-off lands.
Not “what tasks happen here?” but “what relationships does this building need to create?” A case for designing the office around the connections an organisation depends on, rather than around the work it can measure.
Speaker biography, branding and final session content are awaiting sign-off from the speaker and their organisation. Full details will be released shortly.
Speaker biography, branding and final session content are awaiting sign-off from the speaker and their organisation. Full details will be released shortly.
The panel topic, guest speakers and supporting details will be released shortly, pending final confirmation and brand sign-off.
Speaker biography, branding and final session content are awaiting sign-off from the speaker and their organisation. Full details will be released shortly.
Speaker biography, branding and final session content are awaiting sign-off from the speaker and their organisation. Full details will be released shortly.
Most workplaces are designed and measured around occupancy, efficiency and experience. Far fewer are designed around the sustainable human performance the organisation ultimately depends on.
The panel topic, guest speakers and supporting details will be released shortly, pending final confirmation and brand sign-off.
Two days of live WorkPulse polling, closed out in one session. Paul Glaister reveals what the room actually said: the topics that dominated the conversation, the changes people believe are really coming, and how it all measures up against the regional benchmarks.
Sessions marked “details to follow” have speaker participation confirmed. Biographies, brand assets and approved wording are with the speakers and their organisations for sign-off, and go live here as soon as they land.
Not a demo and not a lecture. Small-group sessions run inside the working settings themselves — you sit in it, test it and argue the case with the people who made it. Capacity is capped, so each one is booked separately.
Each workshop runs in a live setting built by our manufacturing partners — no stands, no theatre. Numbers are deliberately small so everyone gets hands on.
Practical thinking you can take back to your own workplace: what to specify, what to challenge, and how to make the case internally.
Full content, times and sign-up for every workshop are managed on Eventbrite. Browse the sessions and reserve your place when you register.
Sessions are added as they are confirmed — book the ones you want when you register, and add more later.
The people trying to make work better — and what it costs them. Series one is the inside story of Work Beyond Walls, from the first nervous conversations to the moment the doors open. Written and presented by Ian Ellison.
The audience is the dataset. Your badge activates your WorkPulse record, and across two days 300 people shape the North East’s only live workplace dataset — with the evidence building in real time.
Before: fortnightly data drops. During: a live wall speakers respond to. After: The State of Work in the North East 2026.
Experience products in real settings before you specify them.
Spend a day in a workplace that works for people and performance.
Evidence, not opinion, for the conversations your board will read.
Benchmarks, suppliers and proof — one train stop from your desk.
Over twenty manufacturers are building the real, working settings of Work Beyond Walls — every setting you sit in, converse in and work in over the two days is theirs. Hover any partner to meet them.
A former locomotive works, two minutes’ walk from Newcastle Central Station. Now the home of an important workplace conversation.
Choose your days and sessions and bring a Plus One. Free to attend — registration via Eventbrite. Takes less than a minute.
Register free on Eventbrite9–10 September 2026 · The Boiler Shop, Newcastle · Every registration includes a Plus One
