GPA at ISE 2022

GPA, the world’s largest specialized AV and UC integrator & service provider with a footprint in 150+ cities in 50+ countries worldwide, will be at ISE 2022 exhibiting on the Fira de Barcelona show floor in stand 2H700.

With over 150 of their global staff convening at the show after more than two years apart, GPA will be showcasing its unparalleled footprint and global delivery capabilities, with a specific exhibit focus on Microsoft Teams Front Row as well Smart Building technologies in collaboration with Thing Technologies.

During the show, GPA will host customers and partners in their separate off floor “Global Lounge” in room CC4.1. On Wednesday lunchtime at their keynote and roundtable session, GPA will be joined by Thing Technologies to discuss the foundations of a Smart Workplace strategy.

Then on Thursday lunchtime, Ilya Bukshteyn, VP of Microsoft Teams Calls and Devices, will be sitting down with everyone in the global lounge to talk about what we’ve learnt the last two years and what changes we think will be retained or changed from the COVID driven work experience.

Their separate off floor “Global Lounge” will also support more intimate conversations, as well as thought leadership events and networking opportunities.

The foundations of a mature “smart workplace” enterprise strategy

German Smart workplace software leader Thing Technologies is joining the GPA team at ISE on the show floor to showcase GPA’s capabilities to support the evolving requirements of the modern office for everything from Hybrid Work to Environmental and Social Governance (ESG).  More and more companies are looking to standardize and scale a comprehensive and integrated workplace solutions strategy, and together, GPA and Thing Technologies plan to showcase the latest thinking and capabilities for companies developing a smart office strategy.

Visitors to the GPA stand can see the Thing-it app in real time, and how it can manage more than 30 functions related to the entire workplace experience across any space within a company’s entire global real estate portfolio.  This includes assignment of access rights; access to and navigating within buildings; booking parking spaces, desks, lockers, and meeting rooms; and operating room and conference technologies.

By combining and aligning the experience and global footprint of GPA with the comprehensive capabilities of the “Thing-it” smart real estate operations platform, together the companies are uniquely placed to meet the increased expectations of regional and global enterprise customers in their goals to offer their employees an “office of the future” experience, while offering an unparalleled level of management and analytics, automation and control, and general operational and cost efficiency.

In framing GPA’s focus on enhancing Smart Workplace strategies, GPA CEO and Managing Director Byron Tarry explains: “In a Post COVID return to work reality, there’s little argument that the “new office ” standard will need to attract, delivering a premium collaborative community experience over what workers can achieve working remotely. To that end, every space within the office will be built with an eye to supporting and fostering interpersonal relationships and peer engagement as a priority. The Thing-it platform opens up tremendous opportunity for us to fulfil our global mission of partnering with enterprise customers wherever they may be to power their collaboration strategies, and in turn drive their business velocity and competitive market advantage.”

In addition, at the Global Lounge on Wednesday during a lunch roundtable event, Thing-IT will provide thought leadership support to an exploration of the considerations to building a flexible and dynamic foundation for a Smart Workplace strategy that can mature and grow with, with an organization as its needs evolve over time. A chance for enterprises leaders to collaboratively explore with peers from other enterprise companies, GPA subject matter experts, and the Thing-it team topics like which technologies are most beneficial for the digital working environment and how to globally scale a standardized user workplace experience.

What the last two years has taught us about the workplace

The pandemic brought all sorts of compromise and pain, but it also forced “different” in so many ways we might never have considered without it.  With new lenses and new foundations, where are the opportunities to embrace “different” in our search for “better”, and what practical things can build upon to take advantage of them.

One of those changes is the drive towards meeting equity for in room and remote participants.  Leveraging Microsoft’s latest efforts to address exactly that challenge, GPA’s stand will showcase the true diversity and scale of its global footprint by connecting GPA offices from across every corner of the globe within a Front Row Teams experience.  Visitors can experience for themselves how this new Microsoft Teams configuration can reshape the hybrid meeting space as you also experience first hand a sense of the people, infrastructure, and unparalleled alignment and common focus of GPA’s global team.

Expanding on this, GPA will be joined by Ilya Bukshteyn, VP of Microsoft Teams Calling and Devices on Thursday in their off-floor Global Lounge, as he participates in a fireside chat & roundtable discussion.  Ilya will share his perspectives on what the last two years have taught us about the working environment, what pandemic driven innovation and trends we are likely to see sustained and further embraced, and what this can and will bring to businesses and individuals globally.