Bruce Simoneaux works for one of the largest US manufacturers of office furniture - Steelcase - but a business trip to Bermuda last week dealt with much more than desks and filing cabinets.

Mr. Simoneaux - visiting the Island from Texas and as a guest of local office supply firm AF Smith - held a one-day seminar for about 35 designers of office interiors from the Bermuda Society of Interior Designers.

The name of his presentation said it all: "Hothouse Environment: Fostering Innovation in the Work Environment."

Mr. Simoneaux, an architect by trade, said he now deals with "architectural and organisational development".

And although Steelcase is the largest office manufacturer in the world, he is part of a research team "trying to understand products of the future".

He cited the company as encouraging innovation and pointed to the company's establishment in 1910 when it came up with a fireproof waste basket.

Mr. Simoneaux - who brought an assistant to help him with the presentation, his daughter Regan, a recent university graduate - said he tries to send participants away with ideas centred around three core aims for the office place: to nurture individuals, cultivate interaction and propagate knowledge.

As part of nurturing individuals, Mr. Simoneaux said it is important that the office be designed so that employees can "express their individuality; who they are".

As for cultivating interaction, Mr. Simoneaux said studies have proven that an effective workforce requires building trust between team players.

A key element in meeting this goal, he said, is to create "social interaction places" in the office.

He said one company - and reportedly with great success - went so far as to set up sofas and coffee stations. Referring to a well-known coffee franchise, he said: "They did the Starbucks thing."

To propagate knowledge, Mr. Simoneaux said the office should also have visual cues that prompt a "flow of knowledge with information persistence".

And he added that white boards were key too, as this allows teams to create their own "visual cues and idea maps".

In the office space, Mr. Simoneaux said dedicated work areas would allow teams to leave ideas up on white boards, and to refer to the same visual cues. Mr. Simoneaux cited a study done at the University of Michigan with two teams. He said Team A, over a set period of time, worked together in the same space. Team B, for the same period, worked together but were moved from one workspace to another.

The study found that there was a marked productivity difThe study found that there was a marked productivity difference, in that Team B had much lower productivity than Team A.

In addition Mr. Simoneaux said offices that are "wired" throughout, encourage "knowledge propagation".

He said people should be able, for instance, to plug in their laptops where ever; "make plug in ubiquitous," he said.

Moreover, Mr. Simoneaux said offices now have to be geared to different generations, with "the 52-year old manager working with the 22-year old computer programmer, or the 70-year old CEO is working with the 30-year old designer."

A new Steelcase magazine on workspaces - it is titled 360: Revolutions at Work - reads: "The work environment must respond to the varying needs of each generation - from members of the Mature Generation and Early Boomers who need offices that accommodate declining eyesight and hearing, to those in Generations X and Y (or as Mr. Simoneaux called them `millennials') who want homey, comfortable spaces to lounge through meetings or late-night work sessions."

To give an idea of what may be coming, Steelcase research found: "Gen Y want the workplace to be fun, relaxed, non-traditional.

"They expect to spend less than 50 percent of their time behind a desk. Instead, they will hold wireless keyboards on their laps and swivel their chairs when they type. They will stand outside in the sun and talk from a cell phone.

"They will gather around a whiteboard while sipping coffee in the office kitchen," it states.

Mr. Simoneaux indicated that research has also found that multi-generation workforces are the most innovative: "Diversity is the key to an innovative workplace, but you also have to support it," he said.

In working with companies Mr. Simoneaux said the first step is for designers to look at the trends of the company and what are the business issues within an organisation - both currently and in the future.

He said concepts should come from that dialogue which may then be translated in to a floor plan.

Mr. Simoneaux added that the dialogue between client and designer is key as the client has to articulate what is needed in their business. And he said ideally dialogue does not stop with management but also involves employees throughout the organisation.

In addition, Mr. Simoneaux said designers should spend time observing as well, and said he has defined numerous means of observation as a first step in redesigning a workspace.