For the last year, businesses around the world have been in survival mode, and corporate real estate has been under enormous pressure to cut costs and do more with less – often at the expense of long term strategic initiatives. But some experts are saying that Europe will soon start to emerge from the recession, into a period of turnaround – that critical time where the opportunities to position our organisations for growth and change exist – before the recovery really begins.

Where we are in the current economic cycle will only fully be understood in retrospect, but we can all agree that as an industry, corporate real estate needs to act now to get ready to lead in the post-recession world. We can also agree that the recession will have a profound impact on how global business gets done, even if we are still uncertain about what the new world will look like. So now is the time to look up and move forward, to find ways to position our industry and our organisations to take advantage of this extraordinary time in history.

In Brussels, we will come together as colleagues and peers to learn from each other, to share insights, and to collectively create our own futures, today.