9–10 September 2026 · The Boiler Shop · Newcastle

Work Beyond Walls

Culture, technology and space working together.

The North East's first living workplace event. For two days the Boiler Shop becomes a fully working workplace — settings you actually work in, workshops that challenge how you think, talks that change what you ask for, and a live survey reading the room in real time. Free to attend. Registration required.

Why we exist

Don't be shown the future of work. Be put to work in it.

The office walls that once set the confines of our workaday lives have fallen. Work Beyond Walls brings together designers, thinkers and businesses to look beyond tradition and radically reshape the office — an experience where culture, technology and space meet. You participate. You don't spectate.

The Experience

Two days. Four moments.

Less show, more work. Every chair sat in and every opinion logged becomes shared evidence.

09:00 · Both days

Clock On

Arrival runs like a shift, not a show. Your badge starts your WorkPulse record and your day in a working workplace.

All day

Hands On

Workshops that challenge workplace thinking, run in the settings, on the furniture. Sit in it, argue in it, work in it.

Live

The Pulse

A live wall reading the room — how 300 people actually feel about work, updating in real time against the region's only benchmark.

17:00 · Day two

Clock Off

The closing social: street food, a bar, a band, a geet canny atmosphere. The relationships are the real takeaway.

Programme

Talks & workshops

Book any or all sessions when you register — every session is free and capacity is limited. Speakers announced on a rolling basis.

Day 1 · 10:00 · Talk

Speaker to be announced

Opening keynote — the workplace revolution, seen from 250 miles north of the usual conversation.

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Day 1 · 12:00 · Workshop

Workshop to be announced

A hands-on session run in the settings, on the furniture. Capacity capped — book early.

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Day 1 · 14:30 · Panel

Panel to be announced

Regional designers and the clients they've transformed, in conversation.

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Day 2 · 10:00 · Talk

Speaker to be announced

Evidence over instinct — what the region's only workplace dataset says about how we really work.

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Day 2 · 13:00 · Workshop

Workshop to be announced

Ammunition for the workplace conversation you keep having — for HR and people leaders.

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Day 2 · 15:30 · The Pulse Live

The room responds

Speakers react live to two days of audience data as The Pulse wall closes out the experiment.

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Who it's for

One event. Your invitation.

Same place, same programme — but nobody here will ask an HR director to care about furniture.

Architects & designers

Specify, hands on.

Experience products before you specify them, meet peers and manufacturers, take the stage — and bring the client who needs convincing.

Business leaders

Your office is costing you people.

Spend a day in one that isn't. See culture, technology and space working together for people and performance.

HR & people leaders

Evidence, not opinion.

Ammunition for the workplace conversation you keep having — live data, real settings, actionable insight your board will read.

Public sector & estates

De-risk the decision.

Benchmarks, suppliers, procurement connections and proof — all in one place, one train stop from your desk.

Bring the person who owns the space.

Every invitation carries a Plus One. Registering? Add your client, your MD, your head of estates — the person a better workplace actually belongs to.

Register with a Plus One
The Pulse · powered by WorkPulse

The audience is the dataset.

No design event in the country has this. WorkPulse — the North East's workplace evidence platform — runs before, during and after the event.

2,300+
validated responses
9,000
viewpoints logged
165,000
words of workplace sentiment

Before: fortnightly data drops tease what the region really thinks. During: the live wall updates in real time and speakers respond to it. After: The State of Work in the North East 2026 launches in October — register to receive it first.

The documentary

Work|Side — the story of building this event

Follow the people making the North East's first living workplace event happen — founders, designers, sceptics and super-connectors, on the record as it unfolds.

Episode one coming soon →

Plan your visit

The Boiler Shop, Newcastle

20 South Street, Newcastle upon Tyne NE1 3PE. Two minutes' walk from Newcastle Central Station — no London train required.

Doors 09:00 both days. Day two closes with the Clock Off social from 17:00. Food and drink on site all day. Step-free access throughout.

Travel, access & FAQs →

Partners & Sponsors

Brought to you by Workpattern and its partners.

A host, not an exhibitor. Work Beyond Walls is built by the North East's workplace community — twenty partners creating the working settings, and the region's businesses backing the experiment.

Workpattern hosts Work Beyond Walls as a platform for the region — welcoming, feeding and introducing. Nobody gets sold at. Alongside our partners, we're here to prove what evidence-led workplaces can do for people and performance.

Event partners
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Key sponsors
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Sponsorship recognises the clients and notable North East businesses backing the region's first living workplace event. Interested in partnering for 2027? Get in touch.

Registration

Clock on. It's free.

Day tickets are free but places are limited and registration is required. Choose day one, day two or both, add any talks and workshops, and bring a Plus One. Takes less than a minute.

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