Leaders and professionals from the Real Estate and Facilities market gathered on Wednesday morning for an event organized by Pitney Bowes, a multinational company specializing in logistics solutions. The event focused on innovation, transformations, and trends shaping the sector in 2024. The meeting took place at Thera Corporate auditorium, located in the Berrini submarket, in São Paulo.

Samuel Caparrotti, Pitney Bowes' Brazil Country Manager, opened the event with a discussion panel on "Customer Experience: How to Adopt Practices for Continuous Improvement of Office Users." The panel featured Ana d'Ávila, Director of Relationship and New Business at Temon Serviços and Co-Founder of the Women in Facilities and Corporate Real Estate Group, Fabio Corsini, Co-Founder and CEO of Inovyo, and Roberto Arruda, CRO at Skyone. The panel was moderated by Gabriela Barros, Marketing Manager for Pitney Bowes in the country.

The participants shared insights on how new technologies are expected to impact not only workspaces but also how we work. They discussed the generational challenge of having employees from different age groups in the same place. Corsini emphasized the need to understand the customer journey to generate better experiences.

Following the panel, Giancarlo Nicastro, CEO of SiiLA, presented market data and statistics on office trends, illustrating the significant changes observed. Nicastro highlighted the gradual decrease in vacancy rates for A+, A, and B-class assets in the city's main corporate regions. He also noted a shift in leasing patterns, with companies opting for smaller areas. "We have observed a significant number of movements, but companies are leasing smaller spaces," he stated.

The presentation included insights from the Market Analytics intelligence tool, revealing an increase in leases for areas between 250 m² and 2,000 m², while demand for larger spaces above 2,000 m² has decreased. Nicastro presented a successful case study of the Continental Tower, part of the Cidade Jardim Center complex, where a strategic shift from leasing two suites per floor to dividing them into eight smaller units resulted in a vacancy rate drop of over 15% and a 42% increase in the average price per square meter.

The event also featured a presentation by Alexandre Teixeira, Founder and CEO of Kucca Solutions, providing insights into the impact of new technologies on the Real Estate and Facilities universe. To conclude, Renato Fusaro, Director of Real Estate, Facilities, and Incentives for Latin America at Cargill, highlighted key trends for workspaces, emphasizing flexibility, employee choice in meeting and collaborating spaces, and a variety of layouts.

According to Fusaro, layouts need to be multifunctional, giving a new purpose to the office, with collaboration as the focus. He issued a warning: "Changing the layout won't make a difference without a cultural shift." Fusaro emphasized the importance of a positive experience from the employee's arrival to their departure, providing opportunities for individual and group work, networking, and well-being.