CannonDesign shines at Fast Company Innovation Festival
October 4, 2023
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This year’s Fast Company Innovation Festival convened thousands of makers and innovators from across the globe for four days of inspired conversation, purposeful networking and meaningful takeaways. Our CannonDesign team was proud to be involved in this year’s conference in two big ways — participating in a main-stage discussion and hosting a Fast Track workshop in our NYC office.
Taking mindfulness to the main stage.
Meg Navin, our Executive Director of Commercial, took center stage to discuss “Mastering the Mindful Workplace.” Alongside an impressive roster of panelists, Meg delved deep into the importance of crafting real estate strategies that not only resonate with an organization's mission but also prioritize its people and cultural DNA for profound, tangible results.
During the session, Meg highlighted how it’s imperative for companies to make their own decisions about the future of work for their organizations. The sooner they can give staff that clarity, the sooner they build the policies, strategies and yes, workplaces to support their people on that journey and help them flourish. Meg also highlighted how CannonDesign engages its behavioral health teams to help optimize workplaces for mental health while also touching on the importance of empathy, transparency and equitable workplace design.
Fast-tracking design solutions for mental health.
Across town, our NYC office hosted a Fast Track session, which is Fast Company’s unique take on the “field trip,” giving festival attendees a chance to go behind the scenes at New York City’s most innovative companies. Our event was focused on mental health, with Stephanie Vito, one of our mental health design experts, giving a compelling talk about the magnitude of the mental health crisis and how design strategies can serve as part of the solution. The interactive segment that followed engaged participants in a design thinking exercise, unearthing new ideas to push mental health design strategies further upstream to help people long before they experience a crisis.
Our participation in this year's festival builds off our long-standing recognition from Fast Company, including being named the No. 2 most innovative company in North America, a world-changing company and one of the top 10 most innovative architecture firms in the world.
