ACENZ Conference - key take-outs and where to from here?

Two weeks ago, I was in Christchurch for my first ACENZ conference. Here are my quick takeaways from every single speaker on the programme.

Ryan “The Lion” Ashton: LinkedIn can be an incredibly valuable business tool, but it shouldn’t be about selling. It’s about building relationships and adding value for your connections.

Hon Phil Twyford: Light rail is happening in Auckland, it’s just a matter of where and when. Expect an announcement soon! We also need to think of our cities in terms of spacial economics; we have finite space, how do we best use it?

Jamie Fitzgerald: If you don’t like change, you’ll like irrelevance even less. Our businesses need to look to the future and embrace change if we want to be successful.

Dr Brett Ogilvie, Tonkin + Taylor: The rate of change, has never been faster than it is now, and the pace of change in the future will only continue to increase. We need to lean into this change, value the diversity of our organisations and understand how mentoring between younger and older staff can add value for both.

Rosina Webb, Energise: Our sector has a talent shortage! If you want to be able to compete for the top talent, you need to have a deliberate strategy around your brand. You want to attract talent and not repel it. What do people say about your organisation when you aren’t in the room?

Paul Robinson, STS Group: The traditional recruitment model is outdated, failing and expensive. We need to be more strategic around how we develop our workforce, taking a long-term view, and providing a wraparound solution.

Jason Krupp, LGNZ: Infrastructure funding in Aotearoa is incredibly centralised when compared to our OECD peers. There’s a strong argument that embracing localism can play a role in enabling growth and productivity.

Nicola Nation and Sean Barnes, Akina Foundation: Social procurement is at a tipping point in terms of taking hold in New Zealand. The government is on board; the challenge for us is to embrace this and respond in a meaningful way.

Dr Eric Crampton: Our current approach to urban development and infrastructure is constraining our ability to grow at the pace required. In particular, we need to use new ways of funding infrastructure, such as Special Purpose Vehicles. Eric also believes that the risk-averse environment created by joint and several liability for councils is a massive constraint.

Kiri Parr, ARUP and Consult Australia: Infrastructure projects in Australia are getting more and more challenging. Conditions of contract create an adversarial and litigious environment. In New Zealand, we need to run a mile from these contracts!

Patrick Hill, Jacobs: Men have a pivotal role to play in championing diversity and inclusion. While we may not have encountered discrimination ourselves, we are often in a place of privilege, so we must actively work to create consciously inclusive workplaces.

Tracey Ryan, Beca: Rapid rail in China has unlocked its regions and created real economic growth. How could we use this, and other more innovative transport approaches to deliver value in regional Aotearoa?

Malcolm Morrison, MBIE: An all-of-government approach to procurement is about delivering a more straightforward and consistent experience for the consulting sector. MBIE is keen to work actively with the industry to understand the challenges in the procurement process and how we can deliver on the Construction Sector Accord.

Andrew Read, Pedersen Read: We must have mature conversations about risk, where it sits and who is best placed to manage it. Through the procurement process, we need to have all parties at the table, or at very least a sound understanding of how the decisions being made impact those not at the table.

Alison Murray, Ministry of Education: The Ministry has worked hard to get consistent and balanced conditions of contract on behalf of the crown client group. The challenge now is to ensure that they are used, and are supported by better scopes and a better understanding of risk.

Dr Duncan Webb, MP for Christchurch Central: As a lawyer, Duncan understands the importance of robust self-regulation. For the engineering sector, we need to work with the government on our approach, and if we don’t step up to the mark, we should expect the government to intervene.

Rob Edwards: When we think about health and wellness, we tend to focus on our teams. However, we also need to think about ourselves; we need to model the behaviour. While change can be hard, it’s about committing to small sustainable habits.

It was a positive first experience for me. I want to thank everyone for being so welcoming.

What was clear to me was that ACENZ needs to evolve our conference experience to ensure it better meets the needs of our members, that it adds significant value. We will be working hard on this and expect to see a very different event in 2020. If you’ve got any ideas, then I welcome your thoughts.

Cheers, Paul