This month’s construction industry gossip: All the fun of the forum

Otherwise engaged

Last month’s property shindig at the UK Real Estate Investment and Infrastructure Forum or UKREiiF as people in the know call it, in Leeds, was described to me by one delegate as like “being at a festival but without the beer and music”. I’m not too sure about that: I saw plenty of beer (and wine) from where I was standing and it wasn’t sitting idly in crates. What I did hear was a few complaints from people who were there that there was no one to sign off on stuff at local authorities because, they said, all the mayors were at… UKREiiF.

Breaking up

A common theme was that for next year’s event the WiFi could be improved. Anguished faces and groans aplenty from delegates reminding many of the dark ages of dial-up internet. It got so bad, I’m told, that the event’s own press team had to beat a retreat to their hotel in order to access something resembling 2026. The cause of this connectivity catastrophe? A cyber attack. Good to know it’s not just contractors at risk. It’s people who write about them too. Call me old fashioned, but I can’t help pining for the days of Sir Giles Gilbert Scott’s red telephone box, with its oh so dependable connections.   

Reform’s deputy leader couldn’t have been pleased when his arrival at a fireside chat event coincided with a loud clap of thunder and a howling squall

Give no quarter

The variety and quality of panels at UKREiiF was impressive, though they did throw up the odd faux pas. At an event about Euston as a platform for UK growth, the Greater London Authority’s Phil Graham suggested Euston’s Knowledge Quarter was the “most important Knowledge Quarter in Europe”. He perhaps forgot that he was sat next to Catherine Hadfield, strategic lead for, yup, Birmingham Knowledge Quarter. “Euston’s success is very important to Birmingham,” she diplomatically replied.

Ever so umble

An event attended by Mark Farmer and Kier COO Louisa Finlay, among others, also threw up some nuggets. The Cast founder and author of various reports into how construction can do better started out as a milkman’s assistant. “I’m not sure my daughter knows what a milkman is,” he offered, while Finlay’s first job was washing plant pots at her local garden centre. And Sean Kearns, chief executive of CSCS, began life as a window cleaner. Can’t help but admire how far they have come.

Talk of the devil

Some may have noticed that Reform  UK has made, well, let’s call it intermittent efforts to soften its image in the past couple of years as it eyes a path to Number 10. So its deputy leader Richard Tice couldn’t have been pleased when his arrival at a fireside chat event at UKREiiF coincided with a loud clap of thunder, the heavens opening and a howling squall which shook the walls of the tent. He may as well have sat down at an organ and started playing The Phantom of the Opera.

No more boring

One of the more colourful events on offer at the conference was organised by Humanise, the campaign for more inspiring looking buildings launched by Thomas Heatherwick. An odd evening, my hack tells me. Attendees were treated to a kind of variety show featuring spoken word poetry accompanied by interpretive dance, an indie band (called Successpit, who were excellent my man says) and… more interpretive dance, but without the poetry. All of which was lovely to see, except for the bizarre spectacle of the event’s host appearing on stage after each segment to interview the performers about their views on the built environment. None of them really knew what to say beyond “architecture should be good” and, presumably, “can we go now?”