End of Year CEO Report – Andrew Carpenter
As we come to the end of another very busy year in CE Midlands circles it is with immense pleasure, I write the final newsletter introduction of the year. With the industry moving back to something like normal, if there is such a thing nowadays, our programme of events and activities has kept the team very busy throughout the year.
I would like to place on record my grateful thanks to Lynn Broughton (admin & finance), Emma Hannan (digital & marketing), Tom Carpenter (events), Emma Broughton (membership) and Philip Jansseune (design) for all going above and beyond to deliver our programme.
The obvious highlights were the West and East Midlands Awards and I’m delighted to say that at the recent national finals we had a total of four winners and one highly commended from across the Midlands which is a record for the region. Details of those winners may be found elsewhere within this newsletter together with details of the 2023 Awards for which we hope we will have an increased entry level as we expand our network. Talking our Awards, it was a pleasure to meet Andy Street recently, Mayor of the West Midlands, to give him his CE West Midlands Achiever of the Year Award as he was unable to join us on the night. You will remember he was chosen for putting the West Midlands ‘on the map,’ for his emphasis on housing & infrastructure and for the inward investment he’s brought to the region and all the opportunities this brings for our sector.
Other highlights have been our housing and construction summits and the leadership dinners held within each of our club locations. Talking of the clubs it is the intention of the board to rationalise the club network and I will be able to communicate the outcome next month following a governance meeting later this month.
I was particularly delighted to hear from each of our Theme Group chairs at the recent construction summit and I would like to place on record my thanks to Noel Street (Climate Crisis), Steve Green (Building Safety), Dhiran Vagdia (Smart Construction) and Dan Bridgewater (Future Skills) for their contribution on the day but more importantly their drive and determination in pushing through the work of their groups throughout the year. Judging from the reaction of the audience we have got it ‘just right’ in terms of priorities when it comes to Theme Group topics. We look forward next year to members and supporters populating these groups in greater numbers as we strive to produce ‘best practice’ collateral in each case.
2022 has been particularly successful in the creation of our G4C movement thanks to the inspirational leadership of Nikita Badesha of RLB. Judging from the quality of the participants we are in good hands when it comes to future leaders, and we look forward to seeing them all at our inaugural G4C Awards in Birmingham on Friday 28th April 2023. In addition thanks to Mark Lyddon and Philip Patterson of Turner Townsend we have seen the establishment of an Infrastructure Forum and we look forward to seeing its influence and actions grow throughout 2023.
We saw the conclusion of the Diploma in Collaboration in Construction pilot project, which I’m pleased to say was highly successful and means we can go again next January. It’s not too late to participate so if you feel a level 5 diploma in collaboration in Construction would prove valuable to you personally and your organisation please visit Diploma-2023-Mids.pdf (cemidlands.org) to sign up.
I would like to thank my chair, Uma Shanker, my Vice Chair, Mark Wakeford, my Company Secretary, Keith Blizzard, my Treasurer, Tom Woodhead and the entire board for their support, knowledge and good humour throughout the year. Following two difficult years, due to Covid, it’s been wonderful to evolve CE Midlands for the benefit of the industry in general and our members in particular. We look forward to building on this success in 2023 as we seek to grow in influence and membership.
Finally, I would like to wish all members and supporters the compliments of the season and hope you all have a fabulous Christmas. To quote from a song I recently performed as Santa Claus in Elf the Musical at the Bristol Hippodrome let’s be Happy all the time!
