CHICHESTER 2011 GLORIOUS GOODWOOD
Tom Fleming Tom is Junior Vice President of ACES
Thursday the 22nd September 2011 was a beautiful day and as I walked the short distance from the hotel reception area to the conference suite I couldn’t help thinking that the venue set in the heart of the Goodwood Estate on the glorious Sussex Downs was without question an unashamedly affluent centre of excellence.
Having chosen such a prestigious
venue the challenge facing our President was to put together a conference programme and range of speakers of equal eminence and I have to say that I as I walked into the conference suite I had some reservations.
The conference was opened by John Marsland, Chief Executive Chichester District Council,
with a very warm welcome to all the delegates and he remarked that following our visit to Chichester he had no doubts that some of us would see ourselves retiring and relocating there one day, however whist we were very welcome to visit, we were not welcome to retire there as he said they were full up! Notwithstanding if we wanted to relocate there and create business and employment opportunities the door would always be open. John went on to outline the theme of the conference “Beyond Property: Unlocking the Barriers to Property Collaboration” with a particular emphasis on a holistic approach to financial challenges.
The first speaker to take to the floor was Kieran Stigant, Chief Executive; West Sussex County Council who spoke eloquently and passionately on the theme of “Building Relationships - sharing objectives and championing the programme” He drew on his own life experiences to demonstrate that to engender and foster partnerships, each of the parties within the partnership must first understand what it is they are trying to achieve and must be open and transparent and work together in a open and honest manner in pursuit of the common objectives for without these cardinal elements there can be no true partnership. Kieran citied several examples of how partnerships and collaborative working between the different public sector organisations within the County have resulted in real tangible benefits for the community, including reducing domestic violence, abuse and waste reduction to name but a few. Closing, Kieran highlighted the need to engage with the Community and Public Sector Organisations beyond the usual custom and practice, communication is crucial and more innovative methods need to be developed to ensure that any mandate is reflective of all.
THE TERRIER - Autumn 2011
The next subject matter “Trust Me I’m a Surveyor” presented by Sue Roberts, Operations Manager of Peaceworks really captured my imagination, the reference to “I am as Surveyor” is really incidental to the crux of the subject which was Trust, trust is the very foundation on which true collaboration must be built. I was captivated as Sue detailed her research on trust in business; her findings were significant particularly on the impact of a breach of trust within a partnership. The most powerful lesson from the presentation for me is that Trust is a fundamental to the success or failure, not only in ones own personal life but also in the work environment and partnerships.
Philip Worley of MACE presented a very informative talk on “Implementing Property Collaboration Programmes” Philip was able to cite case studies in which he had personal involvement in; advising and helping Clients to understand the strategic direction necessary to implement a Property Collaboration Programme.
Philip stated that most people
referred to barriers as obstacles to the success of any programme, however he did not share this view and instead he preferred to see them as hurdles which could with the right solution be cleared. He said that the identification of these hurdles at the outset is essential in order that the right people can be engaged to develop the solutions which would allow the hurdles to be cleared as the programme moved forward. Philip spoke in detail about the five key stages successful implementation of Collaboration Programmes, in summary they are; Develop Information; Interaction with Management; Action Planning; Familiarisation and Review; these will be explained in detail in due course in ASSET.
Next up to the plate was Terry Pitt from ATRIUM Software Limited to deliver a talk on “Turning Data into Wisdom” I have to profess that I had some misgivings about the subject matter which were soon blown away as Terry opened up a whole new perspective for me on Data. The old adage “water, water everywhere and not a drop to drink” sprung to mind as Terry drew a loose parallel to this by saying “data, data everywhere” however the clear message was that with so much data about we need to be clear which data to use to effectively report on. He alluded to Sophia (the goddess of wisdom) as the personification of wisdom; in today’s world perhaps this incarnation is unsustainable without data and quality data at that. Some may say that there is an overabundance of data so how do we make sense of it, in one of his portrayals there was a caption of a therapist sitting on a seat with a couch next to him with a whole load of numbers on it. The very thought of a data therapist brought a ripple of laughter from the delegates, but it had a serious side to it as well as Terry elaborated. Summing up Terry emphasised the importance of data; too much as well as too little, the key message being if you are collecting data be careful how much you collect as it needs to relevant and more importantly is has to be maintained.
The last slot of the day was reserved to Laura Stamboulieh, Director DTZ. Her talk entitled
“Sharing the Costs and Benefits of a Collaboration Programme” encompassed the thorny issue of the fair distribution of any surplus which may be realised following a collaborative project including the issue of who should take the lead in any collaboration programme.
From experience Laura indicated that in most cases in a partnership agreement it would be the partner who stands
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