Gene Mackey, Merrilee Hertlein, Tom Peterson and Gwynn Zivic attended a COCA-sponsored luncheon featuring Scott Doorley and Scott Witthoft, co-directors of The Environment Collaborative at the highly-regarded Hasso Plattner Institute of Design. As co-authors of  “Make Space: How to Set the Stage for Creative Collaboration” they shared lessons learned about designing environments that encourage creative collaboration and fuel innovative thinking. Doorley and Witthoft discussed several of the 120 specific strategies that Make Space offers to readers to design spaces that foster creativity and innovation.  The speakers challenge professionals to see the limitations of cubicles, corner offices, and conference rooms, and think about the possibilities of re-making them. Mackey Mitchell embraced a new bench-seating configuration which fosters collaboration in the design of our new office space.