26 Jan 2022 Annual General Meeting - Was it a party or a work event?

AIA UK Chapter Past President, Katharine Storr AIA orchestrated the hybrid Annual General Meeting from her laptop.  Image Credit: Etain Fitzpatrick AIA.

The AIA UK Chapter’s Annual General Meetings have always been a bit of BOTH – a short, but deadly serious business meeting, surrounded by the warmth and sparklingly hospitality of our host and long term sponsor, Herman Miller.  However, this year it also became a hybrid event of a different sort – part live at the Herman Miller London showrooms for a lucky few, part virtual for others at home.

Putting on a hybrid event is not easy, particularly when the production team and presenters are scattered across the city, but after a few minor hitches all went according to plan.

First - following a long term tradition - Herman Miller provided not only canapes and drinks, but also presented a well thought out virtual lecture (1 CEU) entitled ‘The Office: a Facility Based on Change’, given by its Insight Director for Europe, the Middle East and Africa, Mark Catchlove.

Our special thanks to Herman Miller’s Mark Catchlove and Shazia Sheikh for their ongoing commitment to the AIA.  Image Credits: Bea Sennewald AIA and Katharine Storr AIA.

At this transitional time when everyone is concerned about the future, Catchlove chose to look into the past for inspiration and concentrated on words of wisdom produced in 1968 by the then Herman Miller president, Robert Propst.  “Going to the office today,” Propst said, is to “suffer a variety of environmental accidents, instead of efficiency, vitality, health and motivation.”  For many, the most important feature of the office was where one sat in respect of the office hierarchy, while there was limited support for what one was actually trying to accomplish.

The office as a concept has been in a state of radical change every generation since the 1960s; however, today’s technology and social media have accelerated the recent rate of change almost out of our control.  Catchlove argued that now – in the aftermath of the pandemic – is the time to revitalise, to recapture our lost freedoms and seek responsibility and autonomy to improve our workspaces.  

In light of the strong incentives to work from home, he stressed the importance of the support an office brings to a company’s fundamental conversational exchange, the bonding and bridging with teams, the physical movement and interaction with one’s environment.  “We need” he noted “to balance the individual’s needs with the group’s needs”.

If you missed the night’s presentation, you could check it out HERE

or access other Insight Group research HERE for more from Herman Miller.

Second - following the educational presentations, the formal part of the AGM dealt with review of the 2021 Accounts and the election of the 2022 Board of Directors and Officers. Additionally, the 2021 President, Katharine Storr AIA, gave an overview presentation of the past year and the 2022 President, Anna Foden AIA, gave a preview of plans for 2022. The Year End Presentation can be viewed in full HERE.

There was an element of social distancing for those who attended live; but the majority of members chose the virtual option. Image Credit: Etain Fitzpatrick AIA.

Virtual viewers missed the hospitality and overall comradery at Herman Miller’s showrooms. Image Credit: Katharine Storr AIA

Written by: Lorraine King AIA, Secretary AIA UK Chapter