8:30 – 9:45 a.m.

David Harris opened the CoreNet Global Atlanta Summit by talking about his plans as Chairman of the association's board of directors. He said, when he assumed leadership of CoreNet Global earlier this year, his goal was to focus on three main initiatives: Creating a Member Centric Organization, Launching our New Learning Model and Driving Membership Growth.

First, he said, our efforts to build a member centric organization is already under way, and we will continue to build on the key learning from member and chapter leader's surveys.

Second, he continued, our strongest asset is our focus on learning and our Executive Development Program, supported by an excellent program staff and volunteers. To address the challenge of scaling the program, we will be developing an e-learning offering as an alternative and/or supplement to the classroom education as well as strategic partnerships with universities.

Finally, he said, some of our most exciting growth opportunities are in the international markets, in particular, India and China. We are currently drafting a strategic plan to outline how best to support our new members in Asia and Europe.

Harris also thanked the day's sponsors, Allsteel, Cushman & Wakefield, Grubb & Ellis and Johnson Controls.

CoreNet Global CEO, Prentice Knight, and David Harris then presented the 2007 Global Innovators Awards. This year's Global Innovators Awards were sponsored by Greg Schementi of UGL Equis, Joe Brancato with Gensler, and Hans Gant of the Metro Atlanta Chamber of Commerce.

The finalists for the Innovations by Corporate and Government Agency End Users category were:

- Fidelity Corporate Real Estate, represented by Rob Reilly
- The Tennessee Valley Authority, represented by John Bradley
- The City of Melbourne, Australia, for its Council House 2

And the winner of the category was Sprint Nextel Enterprise Real Estate Group, represented by Faye Davis, Vice President, Sprint.

The finalists for the Innovations by Service Providers category were:

- DIRTT Agile Architectural Solutions, represented by Michelle Anderson
- Jones Lang LaSalle, represented by David Roberts

And the winner of the category was CB Richard Ellis. Accepting the award for CB Richard Ellis was Kristin Beatty, Associate Director of Consulting.

The finalists for the Innovations in Collaborative Partnerships category were:

- DTZ with the Metropolitan Police Service of London, represented by Richard Hurtz of DTZ and Paul Turner of Metropolitan Police Service
- The U.S. General Services Administration for its 3D-4D Building Information Management model

And the winner of the category was the U.S. General Services Administration for its 3D-4D Building Information Management model. Accepting the award was Charles Matta, Director National Center for Federal Buildings and Modernizations with the GSA's Public Buildings Service.

Lawyers. Accountants. Engineers. That's what our parents encouraged us to become when we grew up. But Mom and Dad were wrong.

According to Daniel Pink, the future belongs to a different kind of person with a different kind of mind, people like artists, inventors, storytellers, caregivers.

These right-brained people are the next business elite - the women and men who will power your organization. Best-selling author Daniel Pink presented evidence from around the world to reveal how the forces of Abundance, Asia, and Automation are nudging us into an era defined not by traditional "knowledge workers," but by creators and empathizers. He explained what this transformation means for your organization - and he offered hands-on tools and tips, as well as real-life examples, for how you can navigate this new terrain.

Why are "high tech" abilities are giving way to "high concept" and "high touch" talents? Pink says it is because those jobs that are easily repeatable are most likely will be taken over by technology or software. One example Pink mentioned is the high acceptance of software programs like Turbo Tax, which has six millions users each year. Accountants are no longer doing taxes for the middle class. It is this kind of sweeping change in behavior that is taking the 'repeatable' jobs.

What Pink termed "Abundance" is that people are no longer buying products based solely on need or utility. He showed the audience a designer toilet brush as an example. The toilet brush doesn't perform any better than those brushes of our parents' and grandparents' time, but it looks nicer.

Daniel Pink is a contributing editor at Wired and Yahoo! Finance, and his articles and essays have also appeared in The New York Times, Harvard Business Review and Fast Company. He is the author of the critically acclaimed Free Agent Nation and A Whole New Mind, a frequent guest on television and radio programs, and a consultant to companies large and small on human resources, communications and innovation. Monday's keynote speech was sponsored by CB Richard Ellis.

10:30 – 12:00 p.m.

Recruiting and retaining talent is the single largest concern of the 400 fastest growing companies in the US. By 2010, there will be a shortage of 10 million knowledge workers. Only 44% of US workers believe that their companies are taking steps to retain them.

With these statistics as an introduction by moderator Amit Ramani of NELSON, a panel of experts shared with a packed room what Orbitz International is doing to attract the best of the best. According to Katherine Andreasen, Chief HR Officer at Orbitz, the culture is to "get a step ahead and leave the old school behind" when recruiting talent. It is time to depart from the ordinary and traditional way of doing things. For Orbitz, Generation Y is the group that is most recruited. They are cool people who want to work in cool places, and Orbitz is providing workspace to attract the Y's. While doing this, Orbitz has found that this type of workspace is liberating for the other generations in the workplace, as well. Orbitz believes in "work in life" and provides a flexible, casual and mobile workplace for its employees, including mobile technology, places for collaboration, community and socializing, as well as specialized places such as a lunchroom, a mother's nursing room and a Muslim prayer room.

Meg Osman, Principal, OWP/P, helped Orbitz design its new home. She faced the challenge of how to create "Cool, with Speed." The plan included functionality with density and "draw", transparency, and a celebration of refined with reality. In the design was an industrial feel, with sleek refinement of technology and a universal plan for workstation size. Noting that the Generation Y workers tend to be loyal to people and not to the organization, the design focused on the worker and not the company.

"How did we do it in seven months?" was the question that Bill Conopeotis, President, ConopCo addressed. He assembled a best-in-class team, defined project goals early and got team buy-in. With a communication plan of 24/7, the team had a clearly defined structure and goal to make it a quick and efficient client-driven decision-making process. With a clear goal to "have fun along the way!!" the project was completed on schedule, and 1200 employees were moved into the new headquarters over 3 weekends. The entire project delivered a 10% budget savings.

Orbitz International has been in their new space for one year. Metrics show a positive hiring rate and offer acceptance rate, low turnover and high employee satisfaction. It is clear that the company has tapped into a key ingredient in finding and keeping talent!

10:30 – 12:00 p.m.

Shanghai and Bangalore are well-known international development hotspots, but expert panelists at the CoreNet Global Summit, meeting now in Atlanta, identified the up-and-coming cities that are expected to be the economic hubs of the future.

In a session called, "Around the World in 90 Minutes," panelists picked dozens of cities in Asia, Europe and the Americas that offer a business climate making them ripe for development by growing companies. Over 300 attendees attended the session, part of the corporate real estate and workplace association's fall Summit meeting.

When selecting European locations for manufacturing centers or Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) offices, René Buck, President of Buck Consultants International, advises companies to look for three differentiators before citing a new European facility; talent, technology and connectivity.

Buck, whose firm is one of Europe's leading independent location consulting companies, said emerging business centers like Glasgow/Edinburgh, Scotland and Istanbul, Turkey are among Europe's brightest future development stars. But he added that Sofia, Bulgaria is, "on the rise and will attract a lot of new companies."

A prominent Asia expert, Dennis J. Meseroll, Director of Tractus Asia Limited, a location consulting firm, said companies should look to second and third tier cities that he calls "sleepers," which include Chengdu, China, Orissa, India as well as Ho Chi Minh City/Hanoi, Vietnam.

Despite the attractiveness of exotic new Asian and Eastern European markets, Dennis Donovan, Principal of Wadley-Donovan-Gutshaw Consulting, said North, Central and South America, "continues to be very strong," for outsourced call centers and manufacturing centers.

Donovan, a renowned site selection expert, calls places ranging from Dickinson, North Dakota, to Hermosillo, Mexico to Santiago, Chile, among the hottest future investment hotspots in the Western Hemisphere.

Donovan told session attendees that, "Honduras is competitive with China on cost," and suggested companies look at locations like that for their relative political and currency stability, as well as a strong pool of bilingual workers.

Despite obvious upsides, like a well-trained labor market or relatively low wages, the panelists all warned companies about to plunge into new markets to avoid pitfalls, such as:

- Herd mentality
- Making location decisions on country-level data
- Relying on secondary data
- Regulatory change, and others

A recent CoreNet Global location decision survey indicated that North America remains the market of choice, followed by emerging markets such as Eastern Europe and Asia.

10:30 – 12:00 p.m.

While the main focus of this Summit is on talent, there's strong linkage between the many issues surrounding the need for more human capital and the broad spectrum of sustainability practices. Companies that are commited to green buildings and other forms of sustainability are also addressing one of the key attributes that younger workers look for when they seek employment.

So the results of two new studies released here today on the state of sustainability in multinational companies is certainly good news for people seeking jobs with enterprises that are centered on the triple bottom line of people, planet and profit.

That's because both sustainability studies show that going green isn't just for early adopters, it's now a mainstream practice by a growing number of Fortune and Global 1000 firms.

For one study, CoreNet Global teamed with Jones Lang LaSalle to survey four Global Summit audiences this past year in Singapore, Denver, Melbourne and London. More than 400 industry executives responded, so it's a highly concentrated sampling of senior-level business decision makers. Most run or influence real estate, facilities and workplace programs for large companies, so their views, by extension, reflect the intent of their senior management in the C-Suite and business units - making it a strong business case for sustainability in the corporate setting.

Several key reasons make the survey on Corporate Real Estate Perceptions and Trends in Sustainability a landmark study:

- A strong majority (79%) views sustainability as very important today or within the next two years
- A growing proportion (77%) are willing to pay a premium for sustainability
- Others (22%) are willing to pay the same

But the new study exposes a couple of gaps:

- A slight majority (52%) say premiums (extra cost for sustainable solutions) will be 5% or more
- More than a third (38%) project that the premium will cost 1-5% more
- Over a fifth (22%) think green buildings will cost 10% more than conventional buildings
- A small number (1%) believe it's zero cost, or the same cost (8%)

Another disconnect:

- Less than one-fifth (17%) said there is good, or widely available sustainable real estate solutions in markets where their companies need to locate offices
- Even more (42%) describe the green supply chain as patchy, good in some places but not others
- Nearly as many (41%) think overall availability globally is limited or minimal

The adoption rate of green practices varies from one global region to another:
- 61% of respondents in Europe feel sustainability is a critical business issue now
- 53% feel that way in Australia
- 44% registered a higher level of urgency in North America
- 43% in Asia

"We have passed the tipping point for sustainability. It's no longer a consideration. It's now a question of how to explain why you have chosen not to have sustainabity in your places, products and practices," according to CoreNet Global VP Eric Bowles.

Energy conservation and usage emerged as one of the top areas of practice in the study. "Companies are seeing its potentially positive impact to the bottom line not just the environment," commented JLL's Ben Breslau, director of Occupier Research for the firm.

The recognition of how sustainability can improve the bottom line along with helping people and the environment is what the study's main subtext suggests, a sort of complete recognition that the total 3BL can in fact work as a new business model for global companies.

"These findings reinforce what we are hearingn from clients every day: more and more companies are recognizing the business case for sustainability," added Breslau. "Their corporate real estate departments are charged with making that happen to a large extent."

The second, related survey supported the findings of the CoreNet Global - JLL results in large measure.

CoreNet Global partnered with Building Design + Construction Magazine to add to the perspectives of corporate and commercial real estate people by addressing the design-and-build side of the industry.

Editor-in-Chief Robert Cassidy shared the results:

- Four-fifths (80%) have incorporated sustainable design into recent corporate building or renovation projects either extensively or somewhat
- Describing them as "low hanging fruit," features like automated lighting controls, energy management, low VOC carpets and finishes, and daylighting are among the most
- used green features currently, Cassidy related
- Lesser-used features include environmentally sensitive landscaping, reused construction and demolition waste, cool roofs, storm water harvesting, and underfloor air distribution

The publication survey a wide range of industry sectors, according to Cassidy. The corporate real estate and workplace segment rated the public relations and reputational value of sustainability practices the highest of all the industries tracked, the editor reported.

John Schinter, who runs JLL's newly formed sustainability and energy management business unit, shared 5 "impactful energy trends" as part of the panel:

- Regulation of the U.S. carbon market
- Green construction standards by local governments
- Clear market premium for leased green space
- Use of all green criteria by more brokers
- Clear premium for sale price (added value to buildings because they are green)

Another panel member, Susie Tilson-Spivey of TVS & Associates, agreed that a tipping point has been reached. "Get commitment (for green or LEED® certified buildings) and buy-in on the front end of projects," she advised, and those buildings will end up costing less to build with green features. "There are lots of things you can do that cost zero money, like white roofs."

Panelist Greg O'Brien of Transwestern Energy stated that "LEED® (certified) buildings are worth 10% more." He also outlined the "Sustainability Royal Flush" that companies can benefit from in poker-like fashion:

- THE KING: Energy Efficiency
- THE QUEEN: Reducing carbon footprint
- THE ACE IN THE HOLE: Access to mass transit (with rising gasoline prices)
- THE JACK: Recycling profitability (WalMart's greening of the supply chain)
- THE TEN: Added value through LEED certification

2:00 – 3:30 p.m.

Bigger salaries, better benefits and profit sharing have long been the strategies companies have used to keep their top employees. But what can companies do to stand out from the crowd?

In this session, Sundar Nagarajan and Jamie Clark from Deloitte, Paula Edwards from Herman Miller, and Mark Gribbons of IA Interior Architects, discussed how they used the workplace itself to foster loyalty among their employees.

For some employees, a flexible schedule increases their satisfaction with their jobs. But, for others, it is the ability to work in the kind of environment that helps them do their jobs differently. The trick is to find out which employee works best in what situation.

2:00 – 3:30 p.m.

The design of the Hearst Tower in New York City is intended for it to be completely different from any other building in Manhattan's skyline. But it is more than its imprint on the skyline that makes it unique. It is the difference this environmentally sustainable office tower has made to the employees who work there that is the topic of this educational session.

The Hearst Tower is the most secure building as well as the most technologically advanced in Manhattan. With a 20,000 square foot footprint, this building also has the cleanest air of any building in New York City, provides daylight to every employee in the building, and is rated LEED® Gold. However, it is more than the building that has made its first year successful. It is the climate of caring, both for the environment and for the Hearst employees in an ever-expanding program of employee centric initiatives that makes it the desired place to work in the city!

From custom-designed workstations constructed from recycled materials, adjustable lighting which allows natural light into the whole building, filtered water with environmentally friendly drinking cups, a wellness center with full-time nurse practitioner, a café featuring locally-grown produce, a green market where employees can buy fresh produce during the growing season - these are only a few of the green concepts which have become part of the Hearst Tower culture. The amenities keep adding up as emphasis is placed on using green concepts to make people feel appreciated and happy to work in the Hearst Tower. It's all about having fun at work, which is a key retention tool. Healthy, happy employees don't leave.

According to Brian Schwagerl and Lou Nowikas, presenters for this session, it's all about the "WOW" factor. When someone comes into Hearst Tower, they see smiles on faces, a beautiful work environment, and a company that exemplifies a climate of caring.

As stated in The New Yorker, it is "Not just a better skyline - a better sky."