Hendrick Principal Stephen Wells was invited to speak at the Sunon Global Summit in Hangzhou, China, this past summer, joining a handful of U.S. designers and peers from around the world to talk about the future of the workplace. We sat down with Stephen to hear what he shared on that stage, and what he brought back.
What did you speak about at the summit?
The main focus of the conversation, just the presentation, was around the fact that in today's workplace, it's really not as much about hitting seat counts and the quantitative aspects of an organization. It's more about that qualitative experience. What is the experience going to be for the individuals, and how do you create a variety of different experiences that they can encounter throughout their day, based upon whatever their needs are, whether it's focus time, collaboration, social time, really trying to create spaces that drive culture as well as driving productivity.
A lot of what we talked about is how spaces can promote and drive people coming together and supporting each other, either supporting existing cultures or creating culture that may be lacking as people are still coming out of the pandemic. And the reality is that, regardless of all of the benchmarking that we have and all of the various projects that we've worked on, none of those are going to be a direct correlation to the solutions that we're going to provide for client X, because they all have to be very specifically curated and customized for each organization, because every organization is different, just like every person is different. It's really trying to look across the organization from a broad perspective, and really understanding what that mix of the individuals that exist within the organization is, and how do we try to design spaces that really connect across all people, how they work, what are their cultural background differentials, and how do we provide environments that really feel much more universal in the way in which they're designed, in the way in which people want to work, and they want to connect, and they want to collaborate.
What surprised you most about how that message landed with an international audience?
I was curious and wanted to make sure what we covered in our presentation was relevant beyond people in the United States, because there were only a few of us from the U.S. The predominant audience was from other countries. So I wasn't really sure how they would tie what we were sharing back to their own work with clients. What was interesting is that there is a lot of alignment as to what's happening in the rest of the world, whether they are global companies or more localized companies within different countries, there's a lot of similarity in the challenges and the expectations of the workplace across the world. I think that was really, really interesting. And I think we were all kind of like, oh wow, I would have never thought that in Qatar, you guys are having the same challenges that we're having here in the U.S. That was really, really eye-opening in showing how small the world really is. Even though we're also vastly different culturally in many ways.
How did the opportunity come about?
A local furniture dealer here in Atlanta, CWC, had reached out to see if I and another designer from another firm, Rob Molesky with Warner Summers, would be interested in going to China. Obviously, Sunon, the furniture manufacturer, sponsored the entire thing. They are continuing in the process of becoming a little bit more known in the American market and finding ways in which to really get integrated into the U.S. market, and they saw this as an opportunity to bring over some United States designers from different areas, along with designers and dealers and real estate people from various countries around the world into Hangzhou, China, where the event was hosted. It's also where their company is headquartered. As we were in the planning process, the local southeastern rep for Sunon reached out and asked if Rob and I would be willing to speak about what we're seeing in design for the corporate office today, as well as for the future. And of course, we were like, well, we can't really say no.
What was the experience like beyond the summit itself?
It was a fascinating experience. It was a really wonderful balance of us learning a lot about their company and product line, their manufacturing process, and their ability to manufacture in North America, because they've been opening manufacturing facilities here to help get product to the United States in a timely manner. We felt we had an opportunity, in a short amount of time, to get pretty submerged in understanding who they are, how they operate, and what they can provide. But they also really did a wonderful job of balancing that with a cultural experience as well, providing us a lot of opportunities to go and tour archaeological sites within the area, allowing us the opportunity to go to some other historical sites adjacent to the inner city, and having the opportunity to experience the new part of the city. What's really interesting about that city is that even though it's centuries old, it is basically China's IT hub. It's kind of like the Silicon Valley of China now, and all of that has kind of happened in like 10 years.
One thing I found really interesting is that, going into that part of the world at the time, I was a little unsure how we'd be received. And it was really wonderful because it wasn't about that at all. Everybody was excited to meet people from around the world, share design ideas and experiences, and build a creative connection within our industry. None of that other stuff was ever mentioned, and no one really cared. There were many times when I would be standing in a group of people from very different parts of the world, and we'd just hang out, talk, get along, talk about design, and evaluate product lines with Sunon. It was fascinating, and it was a wonderful experience to have that cultural exchange with people from around the world, regardless of where we came from. That was of no consequence.
Would you want to have more experiences like this in the future?
The cultural experience was absolutely phenomenal for me. I'd never been to Asia before, and even though, yes, culturally it is very, very different than the United States, it was incredibly welcoming. It was absolutely beautiful. What a gorgeous country, and the people were so, so kind and so willing to try to work around the language barriers when that challenge was present. It was just such a great experience. I can't wait to go back. Honestly. When's the next trip?
