Workspace Unwired

In this episode of Workspace Unwired, BCO chief executive Samantha McClary is joined by Tobi Crosbie, founder and chief executive of Making Moves, to explore how occupier expectations are reshaping the office market. From building his business from scratch to advising clientsacross London, Crosbie shares candid insights into what today’s organisations really want from their workplaces and why. The...

In this episode of Workspace Unwired, BCO chief executive Samantha McClary sits down with Nicola Gillen, EMEA lead for Total Workspace at Cushman & Wakefield, and chair of the national judges for the BCO Awards, to unpack what truly defines excellence in today’s workplaces. Drawing on insights from reviewing more than 100 buildings across the UK during her four years on the BCO national judgin...

In this episode of the BCO’s Workspace Unwired podcast, chief executive Samantha McClary talks with Clare Fielding about inclusion, workplace design and the importance of creating spaces where everyone feels safe, respected and able to thrive. Fielding, a former planning lawyer, managing partner and now coach, reflects on her experience as a trans woman and what she describes as becoming a “reluct...

In this episode of BCO’s Workspace Unwired podcast, chiefexecutive Samantha McClary is joined by Gary Elliott and Georgia Elliott-Smith of Elliott Wood to explore how engineering can move from simply reducing harmto actively shaping a more sustainable built environment. Drawing on decades of experience in engineering, propertyand sustainability, the conversation looks at why engineers must act as...

In this episode of Workspace Unwired, BCO chief executiveSamantha McClary talks to Elliott Sparsis about his journey from early entrepreneurial experience in a family business to co-founding Sociable Surveyors, a global internship platform that unexpectedly created a powerful industry network. After gaining foundational experience in real estate atSavills and Blackstone, where he honed a rigorous...

In this episode of Workspace Unwired BCO chief executive Samantha McClary talks with architect Julian de Metz about why he loves “crawling all over buildings”, why great workplace design is fundamentally about human experience rather than technical compliance and why we need to sometimes ditch the digital and be more analogue. De Metz is co-founder of dMFK, an architectural practice he founded wit...

In this episode of Workspace Unwired BCO chief executive Samantha McClary takes her portable studio to Birmingham and joins Bruntwood SciTech’s Moe Ali for a walking tour of the firm’s assets in the UK’s second city. Starting at Centre City, Bruntwood’s redevelopment of a Brutalist beast close to New Street station, the pair pound the streets of Birmingham visiting a handful of buildings from the...

In this episode of Workspace Unwired BCO chief executiveSamantha McClary is talking to Doug Higgins, a director at Socius, and Emma Goodford, consultant adviser at Railpen, about not one but two major developments they are delivering together in Cambridge. While both Mill Yard and Botanic Place offer plenty ofworkspace, like all careful development today, both also focus heavily on creating place....

In this episode of the Workspace Unwired podcast BCO chiefexecutive Samantha McClary is talking to Patrick Dumas, founder and CEO of Square Mile Farms, about how his company is transforming offices into hubs of urban agriculture, wellbeing, and community connection. Over the course of this 40 minute conversation, recorded onlocation in London’s Paddington, Dumas shares how what began as an attempt...

In this episode of Workspace Unwired BCO chief executiveSamantha McClary gets a lesson in proper due diligence with Dave Bebb, a partner at specialist construction and engineering law firm Fenwick Elliott. Bebb shares insights from his extensive career in constructionlaw about how to limit the risks to projects of insolvency somewhere in the supply chain. Insolvency remains a real threat in today’...

In this episode of Workspace Unwired Dave Cheshire,sustainability director at AECOM and author of Regenerative by Design , joins BCO chief executive Samantha McClary to make the case for regenerative design. This fascinating conversation covers everything from toiletsto civic rights for all living creatures and why delivering buildings that are “less bad” for the environment just isn’t good enough...

In this episode of Workspace Unwired Matt Flood, development director and head of commercial development at Related Argent joins BCO chief executive Samantha McClary to talk about the firm’s Brent Cross project. The scheme, which is three times the size of King’s Cross, will deliver an entirely new settlement in the London borough of Barnet, including some 3m sq ft of offices.  It is a project tha...

In this episode of Workspace Unwired, BCO chief executive Samantha McClary sits down with Lucy Heller, chief executive of education charity Ark, and Guy Cochrane, senior asset manager for EdCity. EdCity, winner of the corporate workspace at the BCO London Awards in 2025, is the HQ of Ark, but so much more. It is the heart of a new community in White City and a building that seeks to deliver social...

In this episode of the BCO’s Workspace Unwired chief executive Samantha McClary is in discussion with the co-founder of Muslims in Real Estate and Cushman & Wakefieldsurveyor Yusuf Javaid to talk about the importance of delivering spaces that work for everyone, about how multi-use rooms are just as important as multi-faith rooms and how real estate as the potential to provide endless opportuni...

In this episode of Workspace Unwired Mark Bourgeois, chief executive of the Government Property Agency, sits down with BCO CEO Samantha McClary to talk about the transformationof the government estate, the work the agency is doing to deliver value and the challenges and opportunities he is discovering as the team works to right-size the estate. Bourgeois also shares his love for leadership and how...

In this episode of Workspace Unwired BCO chief executiveSamantha McClary is in conversation with Avison Young’s London regional managing director Adrian Boyce about the firm’s recent big move to its new London HQ at The Met. Listen in as Boyce shares the journey from consultant toclient, the challenges that come from wanting to deliver the best that you can on a not unlimited budget, and how walki...

In this episode of Workspace Unwired Landsec portfolio manager and BCO NextGen committee member Chloe Prince joins BCO chief executive Samantha McClary to talk about the need for real estate industry to broaden its talent pool and why we need to be taking social mobility much, much more seriously if we really want to create a diverse and equitable industry and deliver a successful and valuable bui...

In this episode of Workspace Unwired, BCO chief executive Samantha McClary is talking to TFT director Martin Smith about all the amazing things that are happening in the world of workspace that no one knows about.   Listen in as the pair discuss the need for our workspaces to work harder and deliver more, the brilliant tangibility of real estate and how adaptability is key to a sustainable future....

In this episode of Workspace Unwired BCO chief executive Samantha McClary is talking to Andy McBain, head of future of workspace and design at Natwest, and senior vice president of the BCO, about why customer experience is central to making workspaces work, why next year’s BCO conference is a must attend and why as a sector we need to get so much better at talking about the value we bring to the w...

In this episode of Workspace Unwired, BCO chief executive Samantha McClary sits down with Square Dot’s Joe Huddleston to talk about the power and purpose of mentoring. In this 40 minute conversation we touch on the BCO’s own mentoring programme and how those not yet part of it can get involved, but also dive deeper into what makes for a good mentor and mentee and why, if we really want to create t...

In this episode of Workspace Unwired, BCO, chief executive Samantha McClary sits down with Ben Cross, the self-confessed failed architect and founder of More, a development management company that unapologetically believes that a focus on ROI delivers more than just a healthy bottom line. In this long listen, Ben talks about his contrarian approach to development management, his commitment to alwa...

In this episode of Workspace Unwired, BCO chief executive Samantha McClary sits down with Knight Frank’s Betsy Brady for a look at how people working in the workspace sector have an opportunity to develop happiness. It’s not as woo-woo as it sounds, promise. Creating places where people want to be, to collaborate, innovate and work is crucial in developing truly functional and sustainable offices...

In this episode of the BCO’s Workspace Unwired podcast, chief executive Samantha McClary sits down with Emma Roche, a partner in law firm Greenwoods, to discuss the changing nature of the office world from a legal perspective. With reforms to the Landlord & Tenant Act, a mooted ban on upward only rent reviews and a wider variety of occupational agreements out there, Emma shares her views on po...

In this debut episode of the BCO’s Workspace Unwired podcast, chief executive Samantha McClary sits down with Helen Hare, director of projects at GPE, to find out a little bit more about the newly installed president of the British Council for Offices. Listen in to find out what makes Helen tick, her journey into real estate and why, if you want to be successful, picking your team well and being a...

Designing for Neurodiversity: Research shows that members of the neurodivergent community continue to face struggles with disabling workspaces, with the British Council for Offices calling on landlords and occupiers to urgently design more inclusive office spaces. One in seven individuals in the UK is classed as neurodivergent, yet these individuals’ needs continue to be neglected by businesses. T...