Jul 20 2020
An email landed in my inbox this morning announcing that it was a year since my first Parkrun. It motivated me to write about my past year in running, and to ponder on volunteer communities. I am a late convert to running, though I ran a lot in my teens (I did some cross-country for …
Jun 11 2020
As the self-employed owner of a small limited company, any respect I might have had for the UK Government’s COVID-19 response was fatally undermined by Rishi Sunak in March. In early March 2020, I attended an industry trade show (FutureBuild) at London’s EXCeL, never imagining the place would later become a centre for treating COVID-19 …
Nov 14 2018
A frustrating 15 hours without Twitter following a seemingly random suspension. As I am on most working weekdays, I was up and at my desk bright and early yesterday morning, filing a few daily photos to my Blipfoto photographic blog, before dealing with some emails and heading out to an event at the Institution of …
Sep 17 2018
CIPR CAPSIG research regarding women in construction PR and marketing showed considerable pride in working in the sector, and recommended some changes to help develop a better, more diverse industry. Colleges and others are also taking practical steps – not turning into propagandists with another ‘lipstick on a pig’ campaign. The image of construction has …
Sep 06 2018
Epson’s central London pop-up shop gives visitors a space to co-work and to test their new EcoTank printers – which offers the UK’s growing population of freelances and SMEs a cost-effective alternative to ink cartridge machines. Three times (so far) in 2018 I have had to dash out to a nearby supermarket and buy expensive …
Oct 09 2017
An enforced stopover called by British Airways overselling its flight led to a hellish night at a Heathrow hotel. I was due to fly to Singapore with British Airways on the evening of Friday 6 October, for the Bentley Systems Year in Infrastructure conference (an event I’ve participated in since 2013 – though these were …
May 17 2017
By combining construction-specific communication expertise, strong industry leadership, and a clear vision of the future, we can tackle structural issues in ‘the industry currently known as construction’ that perpetuate its poor image. This post was stimulated by two things – a discussion about construction-specific communication skills, and a conversation about the need for strong leadership …
Sep 19 2016
Atmotube puts air pollution monitoring in your hands, and enables users to share readings in real-time and via social media. Earlier this year, I participated in a COMIT community day workshop which asked us to think about ways in which air quality might be monitored for construction workers in tunnels. As a cyclist and someone employed at …
Sep 03 2016
Not exacty nuisance calls, but frequent, disruptive calls of a wrong number are challenging my patience – and NHS patients! I work mainly from a home office in southeast London and use a telephone number that we have had for over 20 years. Over the past couple of years, I have started to receive a growing …
Apr 22 2016
We need to tackle some of the fundamental issues in the UK construction industry before we can effectively change “the image of construction”. “The image of construction” has featured heavily this week for me. On Tuesday, I attended a CIMCIG-led roundtable discussion in London with Mark Farmer, the consultant helping the Government’s Construction Leadership Council …
