deskbird at Workplace Meetings Cannes 2025

If Cannes made one thing clear this year, it’s this: the future workplace is no longer just a space – it’s a service.

From hospitality-driven office design to human-centered experience strategies, Workplace Meetings Cannes 2025 brought together the leaders redefining what “workplace” truly means today.

The deskbird team – Jeremie Trouillet (SVP of Sales) and Antonin Simon (Senior AE) – spent three energizing days exchanging ideas, exploring new challenges, and meeting decision-makers ready to build more meaningful, intuitive work environments.

If we had to summarize all the conversations, lectures, and round tables in one sentence, it would be this.

The service-oriented workplace is the new norm

Across several conferences – from the opening session hosted by Workplace Magazine to round tables by Office et Culture and experience-driven talks by GSF – one idea stood out: workplaces are shifting from functional spaces to service ecosystems.

Speakers emphasized that employee expectations have shifted: people now judge offices by the experience they offer, not just the space they provide. Across several sessions, experts agreed that modern workplaces should feel:

• welcoming and hospitality-inspired,
• thoughtfully designed to support focus and interaction,
• aligned with real human needs and daily work rhythms.
  

As shared during the “Is the office becoming a new hotel?” conference organized by Office et Culture, today’s office must increasingly act as a space of inspiration and hospitality, offering a more human-centered environment that supports people emotionally as much as functionally.

Meanwhile, conversations led by GSF reinforced the notion that workplace services are no longer “nice to have,” but a strategic layer for attraction, retention, wellbeing, and culture.

Across the event, one conclusion was clear:

‍Service thinking is reshaping facility management, human resources, workplace strategy, and employee experience across Europe.

What we loved hearing

Across our one-to-one meetings and conference sessions, three ideas consistently stood out:

1. Service + data = the future of workplace strategy

Organizations want to design better services – and they want real usage insights to understand what employees actually need.

2. Hospitality is entering the workplace

From warmer interiors to flexible, multi-use layouts, offices are evolving into places people enjoy being in–not just places they “must” be in.

3. Coordination is key

The best experiences happen when services, spaces, and schedules are consistent and easy to navigate across an entire organization.

These themes align strongly with what we hear from customers: expectations toward the workplace are rising, and simplicity, clarity, and human-first design are becoming essential.

Our takeaways from Cannes

After three intense days in Cannes, here’s what we’re taking home:

• The service-oriented workplace isn’t a trend – it’s becoming the new standard.
• Leaders are seeking simple, integrated tools that reduce administrative friction.
• Workplace intelligence is critical for aligning services, policies, and space decisions with real behaviors.
• People come to the office for people – collaboration remains the biggest driver of attendance.
• And overall: workplaces must increasingly feel human, supportive, and worth commuting for.

The conversations we had only strengthened our conviction that deskbird is perfectly positioned to support this evolution, helping companies shift from assumptions to insight and from fragmented solutions to one seamless experience.

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See you next year, Cannes 

A huge thank you to the organizers, speakers, and everyone who stopped by our stand. We loved the energy, the openness, and the shared ambition for building better workplaces.

If we didn’t get the chance to connect this time – let’s talk soon. We’re here to help you make hybrid work effortless.

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