CoreNet Global Hackathon: A COVID-19 Virtual Ideation Experience - Results
The corporate real estate community came together to respond to the challenges posed by COVID-19 and ideate with peers from across the globe to develop collective solutions for the immediate crisis – and beyond.
More than 1,000 members participated in CoreNet Global’s COVID-19 Hackathon with representation from 35 countries in 90+ teams.
Corporate real estate (CRE) metrics have traditionally focused on cost and efficiency. Yet an organization’s most valuable resource is its people. Will COVID-19 reverse the trend of reducing square footage per employee and shift the focus from space-centric measurements to human-centric measurements?Or will companies place greater priority on reducing expenses?Further,will the significant business disruptions and prolonged uncertainty ushered in by COVID-19 bring transformational change in companies’ leasing strategies?
Challenge:Develop key forecasts and recommendations for corporate real estate professionalsas they addresshow the pandemic will impact space utilization and metrics going forward.
Sponsors, Team Leads, Chapters for this topic are listed here.
With government-issuedorders to shelter in placeacross the globe –and corporations shutting offices–employees have been sent home. We are now conducting a worldwide experimentin remote working. What will this experiment reveal? Will it transform workplace strategy? Will companies that were reluctant to embrace remote work before now see it as a viable option?Or will employees be eager to return to their workplaces and be in the physical space with their colleagues again? Will the employer see greater value in one over the other and what may prevail? And will it result in corporations using less traditional real estate?
Challenge:Develop key forecasts and recommendations for corporate real estate professionals as theyaddresshow the pandemic will impact where we work going forward.
Sponsors, Team Leads, Chapters for this topic are listed here.
Given the catastrophic loss of life from COVID-19, will wellbeing no longer be a ‘nice-to-have’ and instead become a ‘must-have’? What new protocols around wellbeing,mindfulnessand enhancinghealth andsafetyshouldbe introduced into the workplace? What becomes of our willingness to be in common spaces, and will people and companies be reluctant to use coworking spaces and shared office settings as part of their real estate and workplace needs? Will this be the endofbenching and other solutions without partitions (e.g., protection) from others around us?What steps should be taken in the event of a COVID-19 recurrence?
Challenge:Developforecasts andkey recommendationsfor corporate real estate professionalsthat addressthese challenges andrespond towellbeingin the workplace going forward.
Sponsors, Team Leads, Chapters for this topic are listed here.
It is more crucial than ever to leverage the power of technology to ensure health and safety in the workplace.Already, automation is filling some of the gaps. But whenthe risks of COVID-19 diminish, willautomationhave replacedsomejobs for good? The answer islikelycomplicated and differs by industry.Will COVID-19 be the catalyst for more rapid development of the autonomous workplace, where we truly leverage the potential ofartificialintelligence (AI), roboticsand theinternet ofthings (IoT)?
Challenge:Develop forecasts and key recommendations for corporate real estate professionals that address these challenges andthe role of technology going forward.
Sponsors, Team Leads, Chapters for this topic are listed here.
Climate change, environmental degradation, and the growing prevalence of historic wildfires and catastrophic flooding, for example,pose major challenges to our world. Business, as usual, is no longer acceptable.The built environment – coupled with daily commuting and how and where we work – is a major contributor to climate change. Howcan corporate real estate professionals take a leadership role in helping their companiessolve what is becoming an existential crisis?Will there be alasting impact of theCOVID-19lockdown andforthcoming health and safetyprotocols and practices on the environment and climate change?
Challenge:Develop forecasts and key recommendations for corporate real estate professionals that addresshow the pandemic– and the built environment’s response to it –will impact climate changegoing forward.
Sponsors, Team Leads, Chapters for this topic are listed here.
With COVID-19 first becoming a serious challenge in China – “the world’s factory” – companies around the globe were faced with closure or reduced operations due to lack of raw materials and manufactured goods. Will the crisis prompt manufacturing companies to carry out a top-to-bottom review of their global supply chains with an eye toward reducing risks? Will manufacturing return to areas that lost factories to lower-cost production sites?Will regulatory and competitive environments shift,opening upnew production opportunities in countries that have been off the radar? Will countries and locations with better overall pandemic readiness make the shortlist for the next new factory, even if they’re less competitive on costs? And willgovernmentsbegin to offer new financial incentives to attract industrial jobs and investments as they see opportunities to capture projects that mighthavepreviously gone offshoreand enable a more stable, controllable supply chain?
Challenge:Develop forecasts and key recommendations for corporate real estate professionals thataddress how the pandemic will impact the supply chain, stockpiles, and manufacturing going forward.
Sponsors, Team Leads, Chapters for this topic are listed here.
*All opinions expressed by hackathon teams and their members are the opinions of those teams and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of CoreNet Global, Inc. and its affiliates, board members, officers, employees, or contractors (“CoreNet”). The hackathon teams’ opinions are based upon information they consider reliable, but CoreNet Global cannot warrant completeness, accuracy, or if based on freely available content. Any views or opinions are not intended to malign any religion, ethnic group, club, organization, company, or individual. CoreNet reserves the right to remove, edit, or modify any content, at its sole discretion, for any reason or for no reason without notice.
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