At this year’s Smart Building Showcase, we wanted to do more than demonstrate technology.
Across two days at PropTech Connect Europe, we sat down with partners from across our smart building ecosystem to hear what they are seeing in the market, what customers are asking for, and where they believe buildings are heading next.
The technologies were different, but the conversations repeatedly came back to the same themes:
- removing friction,
- making better use of building data,
- governing increasingly intelligent systems, and
- making technology work together.
Here are some of the ideas that stood out.
1. The workplace experience is becoming more seamless
For building users, the best technology is often the technology they barely notice.
That starts at the front door.
Dominic Bruning, Director of Strategic Alliances at HID, spoke about how quickly attitudes towards mobile credentials have changed. What felt new only a few years ago is increasingly becoming an expectation.
“It’s not a nice to have. It’s more like a need to have.”
Access is only one part of the journey, though.
At Metra Smart Locker System, Jonathan Nott, Head of UK Trade Partnerships, demonstrated how a mobile credential can take the friction out of something as simple as collecting a package from a locker.
“There’s no scanning of barcodes, no PIN codes to remember.”
The same principle applies once somebody reaches their workspace.
Embrava spoke about the importance of helping employees find the desk or room they have booked without unnecessary frustration. By connecting workplace signage with booking platforms such as Smart Spaces, the physical environment can reflect the digital journey that came before it.
As Simon Privett, UK Country Manager, and Sadie Agronick, Marketing and Events Coordinator, put it:
“All of them have the same challenge, and that is how can they try to fuse lots of different technology sectors together.”
That may be happening behind the scenes, but the outcome for the person using the building should be simple: arrive, access what you need and get on with your day.
2. More building data is not the goal. Better decisions are.
Modern buildings generate enormous amounts of data.
The opportunity is not simply to collect more of it, but to turn it into information that helps building teams understand what is happening and take action.
Renata Hartle, CEO and Co-founder of WasteTracker, described how combining waste data with the wider smart building ecosystem can create a more complete picture of building performance.
“Together we can bring more knowledge on what really is happening in the building.”
That principle extends well beyond waste.
With Simmtronic, intelligent lighting systems can tell facilities teams where a fault has occurred across thousands of fittings, rather than waiting for somebody to discover it.
The message from Tom Frenzel, Specification Sales Manager, was simple:
“It’s about being proactive, not reactive.”
And at Watergate AI, the conversation moved into water consumption and leak detection, where monitoring can help protect assets while also improving resource efficiency.
Krystian Zajac, Founder and CEO of Watergate, described its role as part of something wider:
“We’re part of the equation in the smart building fabric.”
Different technologies are producing very different datasets, but the underlying requirement is the same: information needs to be useful.
The value comes when building teams can identify an issue earlier, understand how a space is being used, reduce waste or make a better operational decision.
3. As buildings become more intelligent, governance matters more
One of the clearest changes discussed at this year’s event was the growing presence of AI.
Glenn Cowell from Total IT has attended PropTech Connect for several years and described a noticeable shift from conversations about dashboards and single panes of glass towards AI.
His point was not simply that AI is entering buildings, it was that somebody needs to manage it.
“AI that’s coming into buildings… needs governance and it needs management.”
That becomes increasingly important as building systems are able to collect more information and automate more decisions.
The opportunity is significant, but so is the need for clear ownership, security and operational oversight.
Axis Communications showed another side of that evolution. Cameras that may traditionally have been considered solely part of the security system can now support analytics such as occupancy, environmental monitoring and other operational use cases.
A key part of making that possible is openness. As Bob Patel, Account Manager for London, and Matt Jones, Sales Engineer for the South, said:
“We’re an open platform.”
As intelligence becomes embedded across more building technologies, the ability for those systems to integrate safely and effectively will become increasingly important.
4. Smart buildings are becoming ecosystems
Perhaps the strongest thread running through all of the interviews was partnership.
No single provider delivers every part of a smart building, and increasingly, the value of an individual technology depends on how well it can work with everything around it.
That was reflected in our conversation with Lockton, where Lee Pyle, Chief Technology Officer, discussed the importance of working with specialist technology businesses as part of its wider innovation strategy.
“We partner with innovative organisations which will add value to our ecosystem.”
HID relies on technology partners to bring mobile credentials into wider workplace journeys. WasteTracker connects waste data into a broader view of the building. Embrava combines hardware with workplace software. Axis integrates with other video management platforms.
Different areas of the building, but the same model.
Technology is becoming less about isolated products and more about connected ecosystems of specialist systems working towards the same outcome.
Connection is the common thread
If there was one idea connecting the conversations we had at PropTech Connect, it was this:
the industry does not necessarily need more technology. It needs technology that works better together.
- Mobile access should connect to the wider workplace experience.
- Building data should help teams make decisions.
- AI should be introduced with the right governance.
- And specialist technologies should be able to share information without creating another silo for somebody to manage.
That is ultimately what the Smart Building Showcase is designed to demonstrate.
Not one product attempting to do everything, but an ecosystem in which different technologies can connect around the people using and operating the building.
A huge thank you to all of our partners who shared their perspectives with us at PropTech Connect Europe.
The technology will continue to evolve, but the ambition remains remarkably consistent: buildings that are easier to use, easier to operate and better able to respond to the people inside them.
