This week, Birmingham is playing host to the British Council for Offices (BCO) Annual Conference. The last time the event was held in the city was 2014.
A decade is a long time and those attending the conference who maybe haven't visited Birmingham since it was last here will be surprised at how much the city has changed - for the better.
And, unless you're walking around with your eyes closed, it's impossible not to notice the physical transformation that's happening across the city.
From large-scale office developments and towering residential apartment buildings to improved public realm, the Birmingham of today is very different to the one of ten years ago. Nowhere has this change been more evident than in the office market.
Since 2014, several major office schemes have been delivered including Three Snowhill, 1 Centenary Square, 3 Arena Central, 103 Colmore Row and three buildings at Paradise - One Centenary Way and One and Two Chamberlain Square.
Collectively, these seven buildings have added more than 1.7 million sq ft of new grade A space to Birmingham's office market. However, they did much more than just boost the city's office stock.
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They raised the bar for 'best-in-class' office design, setting new standards for others to follow while pushing headline rents up from circa £28 per sq ft in 2014 to £42.50 per sq ft today.
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But perhaps the biggest influencing factor and change the office market has seen in the last decade is flexible working. Accelerated by the Covid-19 pandemic, this has had a big impact on occupancy levels, tenant requirements and office design.
While flexible working isn't a new concept, it was the pace and scale in which it was adopted that caught landlords, developers and businesses off guard and led to an overarching rethink on the purpose of the office.
For occupiers, the change to working patterns, alongside the current economic climate, has forced them to reassess their office occupation requirements.
But, while space may be shrinking, quality is key - better space but less of it.
At the heart of this is the need to not only encourage staff back to the office but utilise the space as a talent attraction and retention tool. With less space, how it's utilised becomes even more important.
CBRE's 2023 European Occupier Sentiment Survey found around 70 per cent of businesses were adopting flexible configurations such as desk-sharing or departmental 'neighbourhoods,' with more variety and choice of work settings.
The days of designated seating appear to be numbered. Collaboration and amenity space is also a given.
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If you're going to get people back into the office, you need to make the commute worthwhile and offer something different to a home-working environment.
Ten years ago, it would have been unthinkable to have a climbing wall, high-end gym or hair salon in an office but these are just a few of the on-site amenities now being provided in some of the best buildings.
This evolving working phenomenon has also given rise to a booming flexible office market, with a range of operators already in the city and several new entrants planning to move in.
Traditionally, serviced offices or flex space was seen as just for start-ups or SMEs looking to scale. That's still the case but its appeal has widened and now includes big corporates. Their motives for flex are varied.
It can provide a soft landing when looking to test a new geography or it can offer an interim home while an existing HQ is overhauled to meet modern working practices.
The move to flex space can also be a catalyst for a change in office culture. As such, rather than being a passing trend, flexible workspace looks set to be a permanent feature of the office market.
Indeed, a growing number of businesses are embedding flex space into their strategy, with 34 per cent seeking flexible office options, according to CBRE's research.
So, what does the future hold for the office market in Birmingham?
To date, the city has been successful in attracting inward investment, from both north shoring and near shoring.
This will hopefully continue on the back of the significant investment that's being made in Birmingham's transport infrastructure and its strong fundamentals, including access to talent, diverse demographics and a resilient economy.
The challenge, however, will be accommodating all the businesses moving to the city, with supply expected to remain constrained - especially for new grade A space - given the scarcity of viable development sites in the traditional core.
Added to this are questions over the deliverability of new office developments due to rising build costs. To make them stack up, rents will need to be north of £45 per sq ft.
To plug the supply gap, we're likely to see more back-to-frame developments such as those already underway at 19 Cornwall and 5 St Philip's Square.
As well as delivering much-needed grade A space, there are significant advantages to retrofitting offices, not least the environmental benefits achieved from carbon savings.
With tightening regulations related to the energy performance of buildings, sustainability will become an increasingly influential factor for both landlords, developers and occupiers of office buildings.
This is just one of the many topics being debated at the BCO Conference this week. Should the event return to Birmingham in another ten years, will the city look different again?
I expect so.
Theo Holmes is a senior director at real estate consultancy CBRE in Birmingham and a BCO Midlands committee member