It ain't your grandfather's office environment anymore. It's not even your older brother's. And as we heard at our recent DC Creative Office Summit, the changes are coming quickly. In Crystal City, Va., we snapped LiquidSpace founder Mark Gilbreath, who reported that office workers today are spending 65% of their time someplace other than their assigned desk. (And he's not even counting in-office flirting.) So apps like LiquidSpace, which allows people to reserve office space on-demand by the hour, are helping consumerize the real estate experience, both for landlords looking to fill vacancies to on-the-go professionals looking for space quickly.

WeWork co-founder Miguel McKelvey showed the crowd early development notes for his innovative shared-space hub and said that creative office space is more than just communal tables and brightly colored wallpaper: It's about "finding a way to cultivate human beings and allow people to flourish." (If you squint, it kind of looks like an alligator.) And HiRise—a new app started by JLL's Andy O'Brien, Alex Lassar, and Dave Adams—is also consumerizing the space search. Launching in May, the app allows smaller firms to rent smaller blocks within a matter of days and helps landlords lease up those hard-to-fill small (think 5,000 SF or less) spaces.