COVID-19: Will content production change the office space?

Advances in technology and changes in the way people share information, have put streamed content, like downloadable videos or podcasts, at the top of what corporates have to offer, besides services and products.

With the outbreak of the global coronavirus pandemic and people working from home, producing content has never been more important.

How will this trend in sharing information impact the spaces where people work in, as we being to reopen our offices and corporate headquarters post-crisis?

Looking ahead to the future of exchanging information and its impact on the workplace, Nick Hoffman, Mace’s Contracts Manager for Interiors, talks about design trends in commercial offices and how they have to be re-imagined to respond to changing client priorities.

Bridging work spaces and content production

A decade ago, we had large and established broadcasters dominating the streamed information market. Today, large corporate companies that haven’t been in the news business at all, are producing their own content to reach out to and connect with their customers.

Producing regular content requires well equipped spaces – studios. With the changing dynamics of work patterns and a potential future of more people working from home than before, streamed content will play a key role from training employees to informing your existing customers or winning new ones. Studios have to be designed as flexibly as possible to be able to host this wide variety of content, ideas and creativity.

We are already seeing corporate companies wanting studios in their new office spaces or redesigning existing ones to include a studio.

From financial companies who use podcasts to explain complex investment products in an accessible way to their customers, to tech and digital businesses that use content to entertain or engage their users, their commercial offices will need spaces with excellent acoustics for production and recording.

Success in delivering studios that meet the clients’ needs lies in understanding their end goals and estimating patterns of use. Designers and project managers have to know that excellent quality content can only be produced in high quality and well-designed spaces.

Post-crisis, redesigning offices to include a studio space will be key to keeping those employees working from home connected, and your customers engaged. Whether you are a tech company recording webinars for virtual internships or recording the weekly podcast to keep your audience informed, you need great acoustics in well-designed studio spaces.

Can flexibility future proof your office space?

Adapting to new ways of working post-crisis will require greater flexibility in your workspace. Sharing streamed content has also seen corporate companies creating private cinemas or auditoriums in their office spaces. Relocating to new headquarters is the perfect opportunity to integrate more flexibility in these spaces you use to share content.

Your interiors team can deliver the auditorium you need to keep your people, clients and partners connected, while also allowing you enough design flexibility to transform it into a board room, collaboration space or event hall. 

Streaming information helps companies connect with their customers and is here to stay, as coronavirus is changing people’s work patterns and decentralising the workforce.

Commercial offices now need to adapt to changing priorities in what large corporate companies have to deliver in order to adapt to the effects of the crisis - and producing content is a top priority. Is your office space future proofed for the content streaming competition?