Design & Build
The changing face of building design T
aking place from 9-10 May 2012 at the Business Design Centre BFE offered a platform for contractors, architects, consultants, local authorities, product suppliers and various other stakeholders from across the education sector to join together and help deliver a successful conference, exhibition and dinner.
A great success
Nigel Brooks, of Langley said: “I’ve had one conversation where there is probably £150-200K worth of work to be won. Being here is just part of winning that work for us.
“It’s the only event we actually do as far as exhibitions are concerned. Being a relatively small
company we have to look very carefully at how we spend our money and this gives us the best return we feel we can get from the money we spend.”
Paul Callaway, Rhubarb Seating Solutions added: “I have to say, the quality of the leads and the people here far exceeded our expectations. Everybody was a genuine enquiry. It makes it very worthwhile and good value for money.” Richards Woods, Capita Symonds agreed that the event was a successful one: “There was a lot of very energetic debate. We’ve been in the middle of the show and have met so many useful people and done a lot of interesting conversations, renewing some old contacts and seeing some new people. It’s been very good.” Lee Harris, Interserve commented: “I think the networking has been very useful. It’s about raising your profile and being seen amongst the rest of the supply chain and we found some interesting inroads and interesting opportunities. It’s nice to be seen and to be talking with peers that are in the same industry as ourselves. It’s been very useful.” Jim Wealdon, Elliott was equally delighted with what BFE 2012 had to offer: “This is a must attend because all the key players from the education sector within the UK attend this show.” Patrick McDonald, Graham Construction added: “We’ve done some really interesting business to business. We’ve had the opportunity to speak to the new Education Funding Agency so we’ve taken a lot of info away which will help us align our business for the opportunities coming up in the next 12 months.“
Henry Carruthers, Skanska said: “The benefits of exhibiting at events like this are that we get exposure to a whole range of people. We get exposure to clients, the Education Funding
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www.education-today.co.uk
This was a key area for discussion at the Building Future Education UK (BFE) exhibition last month - Education Today reports
Agency and other consultants that are working in the area. We understand what other companies are doing, which is actually something which is quite important to us. But we also see all the suppliers that are really keen to work with us and other organisations.”
Stephen Heppell,
heppell.net summed it up: “If you weren’t here the last two days, you’ve missed an awful lot of inside information. Every session I’ve been in, people have been scribbling and making notes. We’ve had leads, little insights, little moments of really quite indiscrete secrets and I think people have gone away from here with a real (insight into a) whole new way of building but...you needed to be here to know how you could be part of it. It’s been a cracking two days!” Peter Lauener delivered his maiden speech as CEO of the Education Funding Agency. This is an executive agency of the Department for Education with responsibility for funding the education system for 3-19 year olds and managing the school and sixth form college estate. Lauener used the event to outline the key characteristics of new school capital and programmes in the pipeline.
Winning builds
Park School, Dartington and Lordswood Boys School, Birmingham won the fantastic prize of a fully furnished modular classroom at the BFE event.
Both schools entered the Refurb or Rebuild LIVE! competition which was set up to inspire children’s interest in design and architecture, and to encourage creativity in these areas. The competition received over 400 enquiries from schools desperate to win this invaluable prize. Entries were whittled down to four primary
June 2012
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