Jean:    What's the tool kit of the employee three years from now? Do they need to own space?

Bryan Kent:    You have to have a feeling that you belong to something. Being at home or on the road and having to check in, you lose a sense of belonging. The human element needs to belong to something else.

John Williams:    In my previous company, we went through a lot of initiatives on finding out what would make the employee happier. We found that some of the simplest solutions have great benefits, like offering a variety of coffees. We brought in a series of testing stations. People would line up in the morning to get coffee and have their meetings while waiting for coffee. We then brought in pastry and hot dog carts. Randomly, a keg would come around. It was amazing how people looked forward to these activities; it was such a small investment. When you talk about three years from now, the office will be a more community environment. People are willing to live with smaller, tighter accommodations. If you deal with the trade-off of what are they getting in exchange. It might be parking, coffee, a game room; whatever makes them enjoy being at work. The real estate market will be tight; we are all going to be doing the same analysis. What’s changing is that we can’t negotiate like we use to, we don’t have the option to walk away; we have to sign the deal when it’s in front of us.