AT chats to… Andy McBain, Head of Future of Workspace & Design at NatWest about tests, experiments, puzzles and conundrums – and being woken up by the dog.

Buildings.

What brings you to BCO Conference/What do you hope to achieve?
Lots of networking and meeting new contacts. In previous conferences the tours can show up little gems of ideas that can be borrowed and the debates across the seminars can be fascinating as common issues and issues of the future, as well as practical solutions are discussed and shared by the amazing talent within the BCO’s membership.

What are you working on at the moment?
The office landscape is constantly evolving and never sits still, which is what makes every day and every tomorrow fascinating and different to yesterday. I’m very involved in the BCO’s 2026 conference which I’ll be organising alongside a brilliant project team and that’s keeping me very busy.

What stops you from doing the work you want to do?
Nothing, there is a huge appetite across property, space, technology and people to experiment with new ideas and test scenarios and it’s the small tests and experiments that can be the fun part of the work.

What sets the BCO conference apart from the other high-profile gatherings in the industry calendar?
The broad church of expertise, wisdom, NextGen energy and appetite for knowledge at the BCO’s annual conference. The conference gives a voice to so many topics and debates; there is always too much choice and too little time! The office is such a big part of so many people’s lives today and the experience of the office is now an essential debate with questions of location, design, transport, technology all coming together to make up the components of a successful office.

What do you make of Milan?
A design and brand icon that has done a brilliant job of keeping it’s USP both fresh and rooted in a fantastic design and craft tradition.

What gets you out of bed in the morning?
The team, colleagues, new puzzles, new conundrums and the fact that every day is different. And the dog.

And what keeps you awake at night?
Not a lot to be honest. I’m pretty good at leaving work at the desk at the end of the day and enjoying everything else. If the day were 26 hours instead of 24 it might help both work and play!!

Andy McBain is Junior Vice President of the British Council for Offices & Head of Future of Workspace & Design at NatWest.