UKREiiF 2023: How large-scale events positively impact construction and procurement

A melting pot of ideas and knowledge

With delegates attending from every aspect of the built environment, there is huge opportunity not just to meet contacts but showcase expertise. Of course, with hundreds of talks across the three days, UKREiiF will be hugely beneficial for knowledge sharing across the industry, but there is something to be said about more informal sessions.

Whether it’s an organised meeting or a chance conversation, the event holds great potential to create new connections that would not be able to happen anywhere else. Leeds being selected as the host city for UKREiiF furthers this thanks to its central location, being equally accessible from all areas of the UK.

Traditionally, organisations will send regional presence to regional events. For national events or those taking place in London, typically this would be a very senior leader – if an organisation were to attend at all. However, with Leeds being fairly central and easy to access from most corners of the country, we will see both a wider variety of organisations in attendance, and a bigger mix of individuals.

Furthering betterment in the built environment

This unique blend can only benefit the industry by pushing the best practice agenda. We are all familiar with the way the industry is going, along with its challenges. Delegates at UKREiiF will no doubt be discussing this in detail, and through those discussions will come more ideation and learning that will go back to organisations across the country and breed continuous improvement.

It has been more than two years since the Construction Playbook was published, and new legislation is continuing to come to the fore particularly in the procurement realm. This includes the Procurement Bill, which aims to make procurement more flexible and accessible through a shake up of an ‘outdated system’.

We are seeing the sector begin to move from a ‘Most Economically Advantageous Tender’ (MEAT) to a ‘Most Advantageous Tender’ (MAT) approach, which is clearly a positive step. This is still an evolving space. We are watching eagerly to see how much of this will be embedded in new laws or just suggested, and what the onward impacts would be for how we procure goods, works and services across the sector.

We will be forging best practice through the range of national, regional and single-client framework appointments we hold, and continuing to forge the all-important partnerships and alliances that build mutually beneficial relationships. For us, the supply chain is not just a group of companies for us to instruct, but a pathway to true, effective collaboration to deliver the best outcomes together.

The in-person equation

Even though the world has settled into a new rhythm post-pandemic, we are still feeling the impacts three years on from the initial outbreak. People have been largely meeting online, and with a new hybrid world this online meeting practice continues to be a part of our daily lives.

Bringing so many people together at the same time in the same place has obvious benefits. The return of in-person events is already proving hugely valuable to strategic partnerships and working relationships between teams and co-workers, clients, wider project partners, and crucially, new contacts.

With large-scale events with national attendance, the opportunity for early-stage relationships of the highest value is much greater. With busy lecture theatres, conference spaces and networking events, the opportunity for short or chance meetings is there, along with incredibly important early-stage introductions.

These early-stage introductions are those that will blossom into expansion of quality supply chains and new partnerships, which can only benefit public procurement and certainly wouldn’t happen without events like this.

To put it in perspective, a microbusiness could spend the cost of a ticket to UKREiiF but could see a much greater return on that investment through conversations that happen there. We would be very interested in seeing what companies see their individual return on investment from UKREiiF will be over time.