I’ve been asked to speak to the CIMCIG Marketing Conference in November about getting social in your marketing, and so I’m looking for recommendations of companies in the construction industry using social tools well.

Things are changing and in the last six months there have definitely been some new players coming on board and plenty of new examples out there to be found. I’m looking, but I wonder if you’ve seen some good work?

Here are some examples of what I’m looking for:

• A construction products company who are engaging with specifiers online;
• Consultants (architects, engineers, QS etc) who have created a community around their area of expertise;
• Social media campaigns in the construction sector that have been particularly effective.

If you specify products, do you go online to get advice? Which companies use the internet well to help you get the answers you need?

If you work in construction, who do you know who helps you do your job better, using social media and interactive tools?

Who do you think are the influencers online in the construction industry at the moment, and what are they doing?

Any suggestions for firms and individuals I should look at would be most gratefully received, and of course I’ll credit everyone who helps as usual, and share the slides from my talk.

Looking forward to seeing your favourites!

If there’s one thing I know about Community Land Trusts now it is that they are made up of people who have got off their backsides and done something. If you put aside your prejudices, that’s pretty much the model of the entrepreneur property developer, really.

Something very interesting is going to happen to the housing industry over the next five years and I’ve got a feeling that people who wouldn’t be seen dead together might make productive bedfellows in the new Big Society face of things.

My adventure started off at a community development meeting I went to in Chelmsford, where a group of people engaged in helping local people take action and find a voice, were sharing their hopes and fears, in the light of the new coalition government. That’s where I first found out what a Community Land Trust was. It is also where a local government worker said as we were discussing the cuts, ‘You’re private sector, you’ll be ok.’ Yesterday the adventure continued at the Community Land Trusts 2010 conference in Savoy Place, London, (as a guest of Newstart Magazine)where another group of people engaged in helping local people take action and find a voice were launching a new CLT Network, a national body to facilitate and enable their work, to be hosted by the National Housing Federation.

A Community Land Trust is a corporate body set up by local people, with the objective of acquiring and managing assets for the benefit of the community, in perpetuity. They hare been around in the US for years, and here too in organisations such as Almshouse Trusts. Using a shared equity model, it is theoretically possible for CLTs to provide affordable housing. Real schemes have been particularly successful in rural areas where local house prices can be as much as 20 time local income levels, thereby pricing local people out of the housing market.

The reasons CLTs are not having huge success all over the country developing affordable housing are threefold:

1. They can’t get people to give them land (especially Local Authorities, who through a mixture of regulation and attitudes can’t realise the benefit);
2. They can’t get planning permission, particularly in rural areas whre there is a huge need for affordable housing; and
3. They can’t get funding (and this is worse now for them as it is for most of us).

These three problems add up to a huge headache and years of wrangling with bureaucracy, with only the most tenacious (or lucky) getting projects built.

Things are changing however, and the conference yesterday was buzzing with talk of CLTs finally being able to overcome their difficulties and emerge into the mainstream, in the way that Housing Associations did over thirty years ago.

Getting Land

Headline speaker at the CLT conference yesterday was Grant Shapps, Housing Minister. Shapps is part of the team putting together the Decentralisation and Localism Bill which will be published at the end of the year. The bill is expected to make huge changes in the way Local Authorities operate, and Shapps hinted in his speech that he’d like to make it easier for land to be made available for community projects.

In the afternoon panel discussion, Kate Brathewaite (Carnegie Trust) and Stephen Hill (C20 Futureplanners) talked about Local Authorities having a need for CLTs to help fill a vacuum in housing provision, or the provision of other facilities and services. This might also assist in the availability of land.

Getting Planning Permission

The process of achieving planning consent for affordable housing (often through ‘exception sites’) is fraught with challenges for RSLs. When we do it, there has to be a careful step-by-step approach with all stakeholders on board.

Grant Shapps announced yesterday that the government will enable the establishment of Local Housing Trusts, and that these trusts, if they get 90% support from the local community will be able to ‘Grant themselves Planning Permission’. Blimey.

If that did happen in any meaningful, practicable way, then CLTs would have real power to deliver housing, if they could get funding.

Getting the Money

The only issue Grant Shapps wouldn’t make a commitment on was funding, and I read and heard a great deal yesterday about difficulties making the first step in access to funding. So who’s going to help with this final hurdle?

As anyone in the conference audience could tell you, whilst their motivations might be centred on community benefit, property developers and investors are motivated largely (but not exclusively) by money. In the last few years they have had to be particularly creative in how they make it.

In pursuit of profit during a recession, developers move from areas of low demand to areas of higher demand. Over the last few years we’ve seen them move from open market housing into residential care, for example. Not all developers are short of funding even now, and if they have it they are just finding more effective ways of using it.

So if Community Land Trusts, who will, all being well, have the planning and land opportunities, and developers, some of whom have the financing opportunities, can overlook the fact that they have different motives and understand how to meet them both, wouldn’t there be a chance to achieve more?

With legislative support for planning and land availability, do you think there is an opportunity for CLTs to have the sort of clout that they can talk to and work with housebuilders and developers about joint ventures, if they knew how to talk to them?

Could we even forsee (as Michael Kohn of Slider Studio suggested to me in the break) a situation where some CLTs negotiate their facilities and housing with RSLs and volume housebuilders on a larger scale?

I think Community Land Trusts should consider talking to the construction industry. With the right attitude, the new planning landscape might facilitate some mutually beneficial relationships.

One evening in April whilst cooking dinner, I stumbled upon a conversation going on amongst members of the Architects Twitter League which I just had to join in with. The members of the league were discussing what architects do and how the profession can retain young architects, and they were having the discussion with anyone on twitter using or search for the hashtag #AIAchat.

Over the course of an hour hundreds of architects and non-architects discussed a range of questions posed by the American Institute of Architects twitter account @AIANational. It was fascinating, positive and educational, so to find out a bit more about it, I asked Sybil Barnes, director of social media at the AIA, to give us a run down:

What is #AIAChat?

Sponsored by the American Institute of Architects (@AIANational), AIA Chat is a monthly online discussion that helps architecture professionals connect with each other in real time on Twitter. Finding a community on Twitter can be challenging, but a thriving community of architecture professionals is developing through AIA Chat. Each month AIA Chat participants delve into a specific topic, learning from each other and discussing key issues affecting the architecture profession. Participants gain access to new insights and opinions.

Why do we host it?

AIA Chat started in April during National Architecture Weekas a way to include the AIA’s Twitter followers in the week’s activities (the hub of activity centered on the AIA’s Architecture Week 2010 Facebook page). Based on the positive feedback received from the initial chat, AIA Chat was launched as a monthly chat to advance online conversation about the profession.

When is it?

AIA Chat takes place the first Wednesday of each month at 2-3 p.m. EST. The next chat is set for Wednesday, June 2. For UK readers this is 7-8 p.m. now we are in British Summer Time, and its 11am-12noon PST if you’re in LA.

How do we host it?

Anyone can follow and join in AIA Chat, using their own Twitter account. Participants sign into their Twitter account or Twitter chat tool and follow #aiachat, a unique hashtag for participants to add to their tweets. This hashtag marks the tweets as belonging to the chat so that all chat participants can easily follow the conversation. Such apps as TweetChat, TweetGrid, and Twitter Search help to easily follow the conversation, too.

AIA National moderates the chats and begins each chat with participants introducing themselves and then AIA National poses questions or topics for participants to discuss. Typically 10-15 minutes is allotted for each question. Topics cover a range of issues for focusing on the practice of architecture, from sustainable design, retention of young architects, and disaster recovery to licensure, BIM and emerging technologies, design projects, and much more. Participants may also suggest discussion topics by sending a direct message to @AIANational on Twitter or an e-mail to Sybil.

Although participants may initially find it a bit challenging to make their point in 140 characters, especially when those characters include the #aiachat hashtag, eventually a conversation begins to flow-just as if you were talking to someone in person.

You can read more about #AIAChat and how it works on the AIA website, and search the archive of twitter messages from the What The Trend Page

Thanks Sybil, I enjoy hearing what US architects are talking about and picking up ideas from participants across the globe. I’m looking forward to the next #AIAChat on 2nd June.

So what do you think? Are you going to join in, and do you have an idea for something similar?

Do you aspire to be in the Architectural Review? When you were a student, did you covet an association with the AR – thinking – one day, I’ll design a building that gets featured in the AR. Then I’ll have made it, but in the meantime, I will get a subscription as soon as I can afford it…?

I was that student, and I was dragged back to my student days when the aspirational value of the AR became a topic of conversation at lunch during the Emap Construction Marketing Conference yesterday in London. By a series of coincidences I ended up talking to Mike Wintermeyer of Woodhouse and Nick Roberts, account manager for the Architectural Review in the UK, Europe and America.

Both these men represent aspirational, inspirational products. The AR is coveted by architectural students, some of whom will be the next generation contributors, but also most of whom look to it for inspiration, beginning when they are at architecture school. This affection turns into an element of nostalgia later, because even if you don’t make it, your personal subscription to the AR brings you continued reinforcement of your student aspiration, and I know many architects who proudly display their Architectural Review copies going back decades, many marked up with post-it notes against their favourite projects.

What’s interesting is that this quality of aspiring to beautiful architecture, beautifully photographed, continues into other areas. Mike’s company, Woodhouse, makes high quality co-ordinated lighting and street furniture, and traditionally market their product with the sort of aspirational photography for which the AR is famous. They even have a ‘little black book’ of photographs of their products.

We were talking (of course) about the influence of social media on buying and specifying habits, and how internet tools can now enable your potential customers to find, share and engage with you and your product in a new way. This is pull marketing – where the prospect searches for what s/he needs (say an image, application or specification for a product) and finds your product along the way. Instead of cold calling or spamming with email and direct mail, companies can make themselves visible, approachable, active and helpful on the internet, and customers will come to them.

The AR is going to stay a print publication – its readership would revolt if it didn’t, especially the vast proportion of individual subscribers for whom the AR is a luxury they love, one they will ensure they can always afford. What will be interesting is how these products use the new social tools of the web to keep their customers and recruit the next generation of advocates online.

]]> http://www.justpractising.com/events/are-you-aspirational/feed/ 1 http://www.justpractising.com/construction-on-twitter/dont-faint-im-going-to-be-in-london/ http://www.justpractising.com/construction-on-twitter/dont-faint-im-going-to-be-in-london/#comments Mon, 18 Jan 2010 22:08:43 +0000 su http://www.justpractising.com/uncategorized/dont-faint-im-going-to-be-in-london/

Cheshire Cheese, Tower Hill, EC3

Originally uploaded by Ewan-M

In two weeks time I’ll be running a twitter workshop at the Emap Construction Marketing Conference in London.

Whether you’re able to be at the training day on Wednesday 3rd February or not, fortunately be2camp are organising a tweetup (a social event organised via twitter) afterwards at this charming pub under Fenchurch Street Station.
We’ll be there from about 5 till about 9 – Paul, what about food??
Anyway, why not join us?
Here’s a map

And if you’re coming, let me know by replying to this, or if you’re a be2camper, on the be2camp site.

We keep coming back to the same problem.

At the AEC Network meeting on Wednesday one of the great talks was on Sustainability and Facilities Management by Gordon Ludlow, an FM Consultant, non-exec Director of British Institute of Facilities Management and Chair of BIFM’s Sustainability Group.

Facilities managers are in an unenviable position. On one hand everyone wants you when the plumbing fails or someone steals your car parking space. On the other hand, you’re persona non grata when it comes to commissioning a building – no-one wants to talk to you!

Gordon pointed out that sustainability had to have economic and social aspects as well as an environmental one. FMs have such a huge range of tools to help them meet the demands of managing facilities (‘buildings etc’) sustainably.

1. Because FMs know about running costs they can tell you what your design decisions will cost in the long term.
2. Because they know about users they can tell you if your design decisions will work (or even better, help brief your architects in the first place!)
3. And because they have to be strategic thinkers, they can help you reduce the largest cost of a new building, its long term management costs.

But no one is listening.

Why not?

It’s not because there’s no money in it, because there clearly is – see the value in Don Ward’s diagram illustrating this post (and taken from the July 09 AEC Network meeting presentation you can view here).

No-one is listening because the people who influence the decision makers on design, procurement and operation costs don’t care about life cycle costs. They don’t care because they might build or procure the building, but they probably won’t be using it, running it or funding its running.

So who will care?

The only people with the pain are the ones who will have it later. Get them involved and everyone will save money.Otherwise you’re wasting your breath.

How do you connect the building procurement people with the building commissioning/operating people? At the AEC Network the suggestion was that funders could provide the link. Whoever it is, find the link and you’ve got your audience.

I’m delighted to be taking part in the RIBA Practice Stakeholder’s Forum next Tuesday 27 October at the RIBA in London, and I’m doubly pleased that the event is going to feature online technologies.

The Stakeholders Forum is an annual event that the RIBA arranges to thank all the people who serve on their committees and help in other ways. Staff at the RIBA like to have a theme which reflects current areas of interest and invite speakers to share their experience with the group, which numbers about 80 architects and other construction professionals.

The other invited speakers are an interesting bunch in themselves and well worth checking out:

Amanda Reekie, is from communication consultants Stratton & Reekie and sounds quite an adventurer.

Kieran Long is Editor-in-chief at Architectural Review and Architects’ Journal; both websites have changed substantially in recent years.

Nigel Ford is Business Develoment Manager of ATLAS Industries the world’s leading architectural and engineering outsourcing services supplier, who provides a range of outsourcing solutions to architects from their base in Vietnam.

Sally Feldman is a print and broadcast journalist who is also Dean of the School of Media, Arts and Design at the University of Westminster. She used to edit Radio 4 Woman’s Hour, and if this profile in the Times Higher Education Supplement is anything to go by she’ll be a brilliant speaker too.

and
Suw Charman-Anderson is a social software consultant, who has been using these technologies for much longer than the rest of us. A recent major achievement was the founding of Ada Lovelace Day, a day where bloggers around the world write about women in technology. Suw also co-founded the Open Rights Group, a UK based Digital Rights Campaigning Group which ‘exists to preserve and promote your rights in the digital age’. Wonder what she’s going to tell us about?

Boy. Its going to be an interesting afternoon!

Well, even though it’s an invitation-only event, you can join us online thanks to Paul Wilkinson and the wonderful Be2Camp who are organising live blogging and tweeting of the event. Find out more at the Be2Camp web page on the RIBAForum, where there will be the slide shows, live blogging and stuff, and why not join in by following and tweeting with the hashtag #RIBAForum09?

On Thursday I was privileged to attend a meeting of the Architects, Engineers and Constructors Network at the Building Centre in London. The event was attended by around 30 professionals with a further 14 at least joining in online through the medium of a Ustream video feed of the presentations (thanks to Paul Wilkinson aka @EEPaul), plus live twitter messages from the participants, who participated in a session run by Richard White, the Accidental Salesman, and a talk by Don Ward, Chief Executive of Constructing Excellence.

Following the success of the Be2campNorth meeting in Liverpool (which I attended online) I volunteered to ‘live tweet’ the event, posting summaries of the discussion as they happened via my twitter account.

Here are a selection of the tweets (twitter messages) generated by those using the #AECNetwork hashtag at our meeting last Thursday. I wanted to edit them down a lot but left in enough to give the atmosphere of the event, so there are still quite a few!

For the uninitiated, a #hashtag allows users to search for other twitter messages containing the hashtag, and @Subutcher is an example of a twitter user – their ‘handle’. The user named at the beginning of each message is the originator.

Live Tweets:

@UKConstruction: RT @heathernorthey @gemmawent @eepaul @melstarrs @johncave: attending #AECNetwork meeting in London http://ow.ly/hSfp http://bit.ly/T2dy7

@earthexchange: @fairsnape @SuButcher Designing out waste – perhaps an informal topic for your #AECNetwork mtg today? or #Be2Camp?

@melstarrs: Great to meet peeps in the flesh at #aecnetwork including @gemmawent @geoffwilkinson @subutcher @johncave @eepaul and others

@lornaparsons: Fab, viewing you clearly with good sound now. #AECNetwork

@EEPaul: About to start, tweeps. First up is Richard White on “The accidental salesman”

Richard White: The Accidental Salesman

@SuButcher: John Cave introduces @Richard__White

@UKConstruction: #AECNetwork Richard knows people who ‘can’t sell’ can because he learned to himself.

@gemmawent: Richard White: we’re all sales people #aecnetwork

@fotofacade: Hey #AECNetwork I’m a salesman!

@SuButcher: If you are watching online get a piece of paper and do this yourself

@Bigman100: Shame I can’t be there in person #AECNetwork. Good start though – “We’re all sales people”!

@SuButcher: #AECNetwork everyone is talking in pairs about how they got into business

@SuButcher: #AECNetwork people love stories – so ask people their story, and tell them yours.

@lizmale: Big hello from Wales to all at #aecnetwork including @gemmawent @geoffwilkinson @subutcher @johncave @eepaul and @melstarrs. Have fun!

@Subutcher: @Richard__White explains the ‘Four P’s”

@robbiecat: RT @SuButcher: people love stories – so ask people their story, and tell them yours + #AppreciativeInq provides empowering frame

@robbiecat: RE storytelling: #AppreciativeInq provides gr8 frame 2 connect storytellers & listeners 2 each other & open, creative , positive states #NLP

@SuButcher: Story must be about a Person/People – see the film Adaptation

@SuButcher: Think about the drama with people you work with BEFORE you started working w them

@EEPaul: 14 people are viewing the live feed on UStream

@SuButcher: Tell a story about someone just like them ‘just like me!’ or ‘I know someone!’

@SuButcher: RT @biswasdiener: RT @robbiecat: RT @SuButcher: people love stories – so ask people their story, and tell them yours #AECNetwork

(OH LOOK, a double retweet! – means a much wider reach for us)

@EEPaul: First P = People, the second P (motivation) is “Pain”

@SuButcher: @Richard__White: Pain always a much stronger motivation to buy than Pleasure

@EEPaul: @Melstarrs telling her story about a man in Crewe (yay!)

@EEPaul: Another story-telling slot (property developer bursts into tears – but work/life balance improved)

Note: it was Liz Kentish aka @FMCoach

@EEPaul: Now @gemmawent telling a story about a recruitment consultant in the architects/designers secto

@EEPaul: Third P in the sales story-telling scenario is “Payload” = perception of your/product’s value

@SuButcher: Payload is saying ‘I’m good at what I do’ but by results – especially if someone in the story says it!

@SuButcher: 4th P is Plot – communicate the _same message_ with different stories

@EEPaul: Need short, simple, powerful sales stories that can be conveyed quickly.

@EEPaul: Session finishing promptly at about 2.45pm BST – Richard has some masterclasses soon

(see http://www.theaccidentalsalesman.com/sales-workshops/)

@ajbmorris: people, pain, payload, plot just so I remember later!

SuButcher: Don Ward CEO of @ConstructingExc is about to start his presentation #AECNetwork

Don Ward of Constructing Excellence

@SuButcher: Constructing Excellence’s aim is to improve performance in the C. Industry #AECNetwork

@SuButcher: The government have recognised the important of good buildings on good education, for example

@SuButcher: Setting targets – don’t forget you have to measure them.

@SuButcher: How are we doing? The Construction industry is 33% safer than 10 yrs ago

@SuButcher: How are we doing? Client Satisfaction – projects awarded 8 out of 10 rose from 75% to 90%

@SuButcher: How are we doing? Contractors have worked hard to get closer to their clients

@EEPaul: Don Ward (@constructingexc) highlighting progress on industry KPIs in past 10yrs: safety, client satisfaction, VFM, etc

@SuButcher: How are we doing? Industry is more profitable and clients are getting better value for money

@EEPaul: Don Ward: cst predictability no improvement in past 10 years

@SuButcher: Of course client decision changes counts for 50% of those failures to deliver on cost/time, but industry accounts for rest

@EEPaul: Don Ward reviewing pioneering clients (BAA, Glaxo, MoD Building Down Barriers). Andover North prime contract good example

@SuButcher: The @ConstructingExc identifies demonstration projects to show best practice – about 100 at any time

@SuButcher: How do the demonstration projects compare against a rising industry baseline? They outperform (by trying harder)

@EEPaul: Don Ward showing comparisons between demonstration projects and rest of the industry: predictability and productivity big gains

@EEPaul: Don Ward – it’s about improvements in collaboration\integrated working, leadership, value and sustainability

@SuButcher: If you don’t have the social and economic side sorted then achieving sustainability can be difficult

@SuButcher: … So what’s changed – the last quarter 2008 dramatic reduction of new orders, up to 40% down.

@SuButcher: Quite a lot of regional variations in the effect of the recession e.g. North West suffered a lot due to housing

@SuButcher: Will new housing and private sector pick up enough to offset public expenditure cuts? If not double dip recession

@SuButcher: What are you going to do? business as usual? (NO) #AECNetwork

@SuButcher: How about the U-Turn – back to the old ways? e.g. single stage lowest price tendering and claims culture?

@EEPaul: Don: how to survive the AEC recession. Business as usual is not an option. U-turns happening. But collaboration is an option

@SuButcher: RT @neilfairbrother u-turn if you want to… //LOL

@SuButcher: In no sense has true collaborative working been anticompetitive

@SuButcher: The alternative to the old way – lean, environmentally sustainable collaborative working

@EEPaul: Collaborative working = leadership/vision + people (‘soft’ issues) + processes (‘hard’ measures)

@SuButcher: Critical success factors to collaborative working: 1. Early Involvement (appropriate, paid for and not mickey-mouse)

@EEPaul: Don Ward: Early involvement, selection by value, common processes/tools, measurement, relationships, mod comm’l terms all vital.

@SuButcher: Critical success factors to collaborative working: 2. Selection by Value, not best price

@SuButcher: Lowest Price Tendering leads to a 20% average overrun: Don Ward @ConstructingExc at #AECNetwork

@James_Rock I have figures thatshow housing/infrastucture projects will grow building overall by about 5-7% in next 5 years..#AECNetwork

@EEPaul: Common processes and tools includes Building Information Modelling:- cultural and process issues the main barrier

@James_Rock: Hey #AECNetwork Best Value = Price Total Acquisition Costs (Management/Time/Quality/Warranty)

@SuButcher: Got to get over the reluctance to share. A contract is there to allocate risk, don’t leave it in the drawer.

@SuButcher: Understand a shared process as an audit trail and not a sledgehammer

@EEPaul: Don Ward promoting CE/JCT collaborative contract, also PPC2000 as alternatives to old-style contracts

@James_Rock: Hey #AECNetwork Refer to work done by Construction Manufacturers Partnering Association (COMPASS)

@SuButcher: Long Term relationships mean we know how to work together, and we work together better

@SuButcher: PI Insurance – new categories of insurance – insure the whole team for financial loss. Should lead to a reduction in risk

@EEPaul: “Integrated project insurance” to cover the whole AEC team – case still to be made to insurers’ satisfaction

@SuButcher: If architects thought they could reduce their PI Insurance premiums they might be more interested in collaborative working

@James_Rock: #AECNetwork the Egan report covered all this partnership benefits stuff about 10 years ago…

@SuButcher: Historic procurement would take longer to ‘start on site’ – aim then to shorten the programme – led to popularity of Frameworks

@EEPaul: Frameworks not all due to Egan agenda. OJEU process has been a factor, also pragmatic speed up ‘start on site’, cut waste

@SuButcher: >@James_Rock Don Ward is saying that the industry hasn’t really faced a crisis in 10 years. Now its much more relevant.

@EEPaul: National Audit Office has identified potential for further VFM savings in public sector – £2.6 billion pa #AECNetwork

@James_Rock: #AECNetwork is the industry just too fragmented and lacking in good management skills to change?

@EEPaul: lead times thru early involvement can be dramatically cut; designs can be improved with associated cost savings

@SuButcher: Don Ward is giving examples of how early involvement can save time, product, money

@SuButcher: Really important to understand manufacturer’s cost base to understand why they would offer a reduced quantity of product

@SuButcher: Breakdown of the ‘right price for the job’ includes huge proportion of cost and waste.

@EEPaul: Looking at “right price” versus lowest price tendering model – horror story of project tendered 20% under cost = claims

@SuButcher: Some brilliant graphs – we’ll try and get them on the http://aecnetwork.ning.com site

@SuButcher: Price is what you pay. Price = Cost + Profit. You will be paying the profit. The supplier must be able to make a profit.

@James_Rock: Hey #AECNetwork sounds logical doesn’t it – but emotions and ego’s create lose/lose situation

@EEPaul: Understand difference between project ‘price’ and ‘cost’. Understand what is ‘value’.

@SuButcher: Not enough people in construction are advising clients of the benefits of partnering and collaborative working

@SuButcher: Buildings tend to cost more today – partly due to them being much more engineered than they were

@SuButcher: The only value of construction to the client is the use of the built facility (not the process of construction itself )

@EEPaul: CE report “Be Valuable” written by Richard Saxon advocates whole life value approach to construction. Start from “need”.

@Subutcher: Don Ward talking about 1:5:200 model – key for clients is the business costs not the upfront design, construction, O&M costs

@SuButcher: If it costs £1m to build an office building, cost £5m to operate it, Business cost to client £200, business outcomes £2000m

@SuButcher: i.e Construction is a Strategic Investment – invest in a better built environment

@SuButcher: So ratio of value to design costs could be 20,000:1 but the value is created in the design part of the process

@EEPaul: “Lots of failed architects ought to be retraining as Facilities Managers” says Don Ward, tongue in cheek?

@SuButcher: If the architect can understand the business and understand strategic Facilities Management then they can really deliver Value

@EEPaul: Evidence-based good design shows well-designed hospitals dramatically improve healthcare outcomes; ditto in education

@KirstieMAllsopp Look! for all of you who think I Tweet too much follow @SuButcher, then you’ll learn what mega Tweeting is!

@EEPaul: St Francis of Assissi Academy, Liverpool – teaching environment boosts education achievement

@SuButcher: We have questions #AECNetwork

Questions/Discussion with Don Ward

@SuButcher: @MelStarrs asks how SMEs can break into teams

@SuButcher: Don Ward says many frameworks don’t operate in the SME sector but clients can segment their frameworks for suitable firms

@SuButcher: SME’s can also collaborate says @GrahamNewsome

@SuButcher: Its important for clients to understand what is really important to them (including if they want to use SME’s)

@SuButcher: @AlanRae (online) asks – what can be done about clients not getting advice about the benefits of collaborative working?

@EEPaul: How do we sell the benefits of collaborative working to our clients? Don says use CE resources (listen to the stories)

@SuButcher: Don ward says – serious large client are doing ok, its the one off clients who are more difficult

@SuButcher: Resources to convince clients – Don’s slides, @ConstructingExc website (join the regional clubs) and have a go.

@SuButcher: Resources to convince clients -Demonstrate good value of your design fees. Try some of @Richard__White’s storytelling techniques

@EEPaul: Tell the Tale of Two Cities: compare Wembley and Heathrow T5 projects – #AECNetwork

@SuButcher: If the argument is single stage, ask for proof it is cheaper than collaborative working (the contrary proof is available)

@SuButcher: Tell a story of a client who ‘turned back’ to old ways and regretted it – @Richard__White #AECNetwork – reminder to Don at @ConstructingExc

@SuButcher: Don Cooke of @Enhanced_Teams is pointing out psychological issues between collaborative working – what strategies would you recommend?

@SuButcher: There is nothing cosy about collaborative working – so many things need to be unlearned Don Ward

@SuButcher: Comment that the biggest barriers are cultural. Everyone is supposed to be working to clients definition of the common purpose

@SuButcher: Reduce the issues to simple ideas to get behind the common purpose – Don Ward

@SuButcher: Need to convince client that risk can be managed throughout the process rather than omitted at the beginning

@fairsnape: I like Dons comment on architects to FM’s – needs to be more feedforward feedback

@SuButcher: Need some measures of how team will perform – use of tools e.g. weekly marks out of ten how do you feel about the project team?

@SuButcher: Constructing Excellence have published a book about how to involve SMEs in Frameworks

@SuButcher: Don Ward – Risk is a mindset thing. Keep it, give it to consultant to manage, or share it. Not my problem or yours – OURs.

@SuButcher: Subcontractor: “Its a very nice idea but very difficult to manage- architect wants us to solve all his problem for nothing – we keep giving”

@SuButcher: “Architect can’t pay us because he can’t, contractor has no leeway…”

@SuButcher: “Its not just complicated, its unethical” – Don Ward

@SuButcher: Don Ward suggests you have to make specialists get involved early and tells a story of clients not knowing their suppliers

@fairsnape: RT @SuButcher: Everyone working to clients definition of common purpose / as long as thats the users definition – so often not!

@SuButcher: All about the early stage of the project – long before the subcontractor was involved – things set up wrong

@SuButcher: Our records show 80% of projects set up on collaborative lines come in on cost and on time – Don Ward

@EEPaul: @geoffwilkinson talking about building control where early involvement has worked to improve long-term value

@SuButcher: Client-1st tier design and Client-Main Contractor – very good on early involvement, not so lower down

@SuButcher: Very difficult for specialist to make changes over a short time period – @HNorthey

@SuButcher: Example of how contractor not collaborating will have to price in the risk of confrontative traditional methods – see the slides

@SuButcher: Not enough companies maintain the evidence of what they have done successfully Designers avoid looking at post occupancy value

@SuButcher: Do you know if your fantastic school building actually works 10 years on? Why not take a look?

@SuButcher: Go back to previous clients on the pretence of finding out how the old projects are doing… (but learning on the way)

@EEPaul: There are no incentives to designers to do post-project evaluation – but this could be good business development!

@SuButcher: How about if a main contractor had to run the building? @HeatherNorthey

@EEPaul: RT @constructingexc: The guide on SMEs accessing frameworks is here: http://bit.ly/f4X9X @SuButcher #AECNetwork

@SuButcher: RT @fairsnape: often client rep construction/building focused, not on the business or real needs of users=reduced business value

@SuButcher: @fairsnape Don said you should be doing some real work!

@fairsnape: I am working and listening Don

@eclipsedesignuk: Hey #AECNetwork thanks for an interesting seminar. Sorry that i couldn’t be there

@SuButcher: Excellent session everyone! Now for some talk #AECNetwork

After the Event

@SuButcher: @earthexchange some of Dons graphs showing cost breakdowns make a good point about waste. Slides will be on http://aecnetwork.ning.com

@heathernorthey: How about if a main contractor had to run the building? #AECNetwork. Or even every arch/eng/qs as part of cpd. Live with ones mistakes!

@GeoffWilkinson: heading home from great #AECNetwork event – hopefully didn’t bore too many people when I got on my soapbox!

@Richard__White: @JohnCave Thanks John – it was great fun presenting at #AECNetwork this afternoon. Heard some great stories which is always fun!

@melstarrs: Anyone I met at #aecnetwork and didn’t namecheck – sorry! And if anyone wants to connect on LinkedIn, happy to connect!

@Richard__White: RT @JohnCave: #AECNetwork Special thanks also to @EEPaul for the webcasting and @SuButcher for the twitter commentary

@constructingexc: @SuButcher Info on Building Down Barriers http://bit.ly/lM4Qe. CE has BDB tools available to members available online http://bit.ly/Tk7zs

@SuButcher: @constructingexc thankyou for your replies, is that Jon D’S?

@constructingexc: @SuButcher Yes, it’s Jon. I was tweeting from the office while watching Don present online. Thought the event looked excellent.

@SuButcher: @constructingexc it really was so good and so much value packed into a short meeting…

@constructingexc: @SuButcher Which is exactly what happened with Building Down Barriers

@EEPaul: Reviewing Ustream stats from y’day’s #AECNetwork event: Unique viewers: 53, peak unique viewers: 24. Sadly, Don Ward talk not recorded

@SuButcher: My #followfriday this week must be @ConstructingExc and @AECNetwork to keep up the debate http://aecnetwork.ning.com

@FMCoach: suggests @AECNetwork for my very first follow friday! Great event yesterday!

Further Resources

If you want to see all the tweets they are searchable via the hashtag like this using Twitter Search: http://tinyurl.com/mkjqkq

You can see a UStream video of Richard White’s presentation and follow him on twitter at @Richard__White

You can see Don Ward’s presentation slides on the AEC Network and follow Constructing Excellence on twitter at @ConstructingExc

The #AECNetwork is an informal, free of charge, global network for the construction sector. Why not join?

Attenders at the AEC Network (not in person) included the following. Why not comment below if I missed you out?

HarmonixLtd
LornaParsons
EarthExchange
fotofacade
PBPUK
Eclipsedesignuk
fairsnape
Kgupman
Bigman100
Lizmale
Robbiecat
James_Rock
ConstructingExc (Jon DeSouza)
CCGPete
TM_Lifestyle
TM_Video
KirstieMAllsopp

I love doing things online. I’m very practical about it; the main reason is that it allows me to spend time with my family instead of getting up at some godawful hour and eating a poor breakfast in a dank hotel with a load of suits.

So any opportunity to network online is ok by me. Fora, blogging, twitter, chat, webinars, unconferences, LinkedIn, you’ll find me there making connections. Making connections is what I do, which is why I set up the Architects Twitter League earlier in the year, and @UKConstruction last month. I wanted to find out who else in the construction and property industries was doing these online things I loved doing so much, so that I could connect them up.

So why the big green button on the Right? It’s a present from Phil Clark (aka @ZeroChamp) who has invited me to be a Sustainability Now Champion – helping support and encourage attenders to the Sustainability Now Virtual Event which is taking place on 13 & 14 May. Phil’s got this idea that I’m good at getting people to connect, and maybe I can do this before, during and after the conference, joining with the other Champions to help make it as productive as possible for everyone.

So I said, ‘I get to connect people online? Fab!’

If you’re interested in Sustainability Issues, particularly in regard the Construction Industry, do take some time to come along. Its a free event, you can come and go as you wish, but there will be plenty to do. Last year’s event attracted 1800 active participants.

Hope you go and register, check out the features of the show and the topics we’ll be debating, and I’ll see you inside. Looking forward to connecting you…

Well I’ve just signed up to Be2Camp North, the ‘unconference’ happening in Liverpool on May 15th.
If you’re interested in how to use the interactive nature of today’s internet world for the benefit of the built environment, why not come along? Online as well as physical participation is not only encouraged, its part of the point.

Go on, you know you want to…