Fora Cambridge helps companies work flexibly at innovative workspace in heart of city
Cambridge is growing fast and with multitudes of different types of businesses making incredible products, workplace environments are changing rapidly too, creating demand which the likes of Fora Cambridge is happy to fill.
The flexible workspace provider opened its 65,000 sq ft Cambridge facility – it has 60 across the UK and in Germany – on Station Road in June 2023 and was a sponsor of Medium Business of the Year at the Cambridge Independent Business Awards in September.
Clients – up to 2,000 in total, over six floors – can choose private offices for between four and 108 people.
The building houses nearly 400 desks in total, anything from co-working spaces, to private offices, to full-floor occupancy.
The emphasis is on creating a space that is so great – fully functional and aesthetically delightful – that any company’s teams will really want to be there.
It works for Joe Faulkner, KPMG’s senior partner for the East of England.
“We have offices in Cambridge and Norwich from where we cover the whole of East Anglia - that’s really anything east of the A1”, Joe says during a chat in a Fora meeting room.
There’s 150 KPMG staff in the two bases.
“Cambridge is certainly the larger office,” Joe says. “Here at Fora we have an internal office on the second floor, which includes an internal meeting room to seat eight, then an open plan kitchen shared by second floor residents, with additional working space in those areas for people to sit and work together, chat, have coffee… it’s really good in that sense.
“Plus we have access to a shared floor on the fifth floor, which is the garden room and includes a kitchen area. There’s a gym on the ground floor which is great, they have group fitness classes, it’s yoga on Thursday, there’s changing areas, and bike storage.”
The way Joe describes it, productivity is going up because people have the choice to optimise their working week.
“It is very flexible working,” he acknowledges. “Different people use the office in different ways, depending on what they need. The auditors tend to be on site, consultants operate nationally and are often in London, the tax team office focussed but is also out and about, the business team gives guidance either in office or on site two days a week. That’s why the space is so good, we can flex it. All our desks are hotdesks.”
The arrangement has multiple benefits.
“There’s a productivity element, and a convenience element, but also a learning element - it’s a great opportunity for peer learning and working together, and supporting the brand is achieved more easily.”
Joe adds: “This whole area around CB1 is a great miniature ecosystem on its own now. It’s very vibrant, great for getting to London - it's really important we’re only 45 minutes from King's Cross, it creates opportunities for expertise to be really accessible and also for supporting broader business collaboration and investment. That's a real asset.”
Another occupant - operating with an entirely different business model - is Bayfield Training, whose chief executive officer Sonia Martin-Gutierrez follows Joe in the Fora meeting room hot seat.
For more than 25 years, Bayfield has offered public and bespoke training programmes tailored to clients' needs worldwide. Sonia manages an “enthusiastic” team of four people at Fora Cambridge where the company has dedicated desks within a shared office space on the ground floor.
Sonia, who joined Bayfield in 2013 as a product development assistant and became CEO in 2017, leads the Cambridge team and manages a portfolio of trainers who deliver Bayfield’s real estate financial modelling and strategy courses. Today, the company trains around 500 people internationally each year.
“We’re working with universities,” says Sonia. “We teach students, recent graduates, and real estate professionals with three to five years of experience. Additionally, we work with real estate organisations to deliver internal courses for their employees. Throughout the career journey, we support our students by connecting them with the recruiters in our network.”
“I like the building,” says Sonia of the Fora setting. “It’s corporate and also relaxed. There’s a garden rooftop for lunch or a meeting, which impresses clients” - the view is indeed amazing - “or you can just take a laptop. The meeting rooms are top-notch, and there’s a gym with various classes including yoga, you can shower and there’s fresh towels every day and super-nice toiletries - the wellbeing of our employees is super-important. Also I can go to any of the London Fora premises to work.”
Sonia herself goes the extra mile - literally.
“There’s a Fora run club that meets at 7.30am for a 5K run, which typically takes about 30 minutes. Jacob Noble, our chief operating officer, completes it in just 20 minutes since he also plays football! With over 10 members in the WhatsApp group, it’s a great opportunity for networking, collaboration, and making friends.”
Finally, Cydar Medical, which has a team of 18, has its UK headquarters at Fora.
Cydar Medical is a venture-backed, medical technology business that offers imaging software and tools to clinical teams. Founded in 2012, the company is set to transform minimally invasive image guided surgery, improving patient outcomes and the efficiency of the delivery of care. Its core software solution, Cydar Maps, is currently installed in 70 operating rooms in leading centres across Europe, UK and the US.
“We moved to Fora in June 24 and love the environment,” says Cydar’s head of people, Emma Walters. “We've found that people are choosing to come to the office more frequently as they enjoy the central location, the gym and the range of meeting facilities available. The temptation of exploring the treats and fresh fruit available on each floor is also a major draw!”
As with the other teams, being at Fora entices people to come to work more often.
“We work on a flexible basis between here and home which means that we have been able to hire from a wide talent pool. The senior leadership team works from Fora along with AI software development and deployment engineers, regulatory, data protection and our operations and customer support teams.”
Emma’s a big fan of the service team at Fora.
“They provide us with fantastic support,” she says. “They go above and beyond to make sure we have everything we need and arrange interesting events that provide an opportunity to network with other companies based here.”