Building the future - RICS starting the essential 'what's next conversation?'

RICS are first out of the block with a conversation about how to restore confidence in construction. Yes, the industry has a crisis - essentially of our own making. Too much take and not enough put back, for to many years. There is always a price for milking the fat cow for too long. There will be many conversations about the problems that are now presenting almost on a weekly basis, just as there will be advocacy for remedies the owners and occupiers of these buildings should justly pursue. Those answers will in part depend on yet to be advised decisions by the various state governments affected. There is no point speculating here. This conference will focus on what the industry needs to do to reset its capabilities and to embark on restoring public confidence in construction, for the future.

Developing a positive and authentic narrative for construction's future will require some, until now, sacred cows to be called out. Business as usual is clearly no longer sustainable. That narrative must include an industry re-brand, that is attractive to future constructors and professionals. One, rectifying the BBQ stopper that construction has now taken over from the banks. This new narrative must set out to define an industry state that will, with-in the next 5-years have have a future cohort of modern constructors looking back and saying; 'There is no way our industry used to operate like that - you are pulling my chain.' Really? If you are interested in being part of that conversation, then your contribution will be valuable.

A link to further conference details and registration is below.

Last month I was privileged to make two contributions to these conversations. The first as a guest writer in the Building Economist (link below) and the second as the keynote at the Frame Australia Conference. My article in the Building Economist was topical, as it pointed to the exciting opportunities for Building and Quantity Surveyors that will present in the immediate future. I think that conversation is relevant to the RICS Building Confidence Conference. My presentation at the Frame Australia Conference opined what the construction landscape in Australia may look like by 2025 and 2030. Both very close. Importantly that conversation pointed to the more practical and technically based capabilities that both design professionals and and modern constructors will need. A major investment in rebuilding Australia's vocational education platform is the essential piece here.

If ever there was at time for Australia's construction industry to reimagine and reset this is it. The crisis the industry is now facing is a once in 50-year opportunity to drive a fundamental transformation of construction's traditional past towards its modern customer facing future. If the best we achieve now, in the face of the crisis we now face, is to put bandaids on a broken system, it is likely that the practices that we have all decried for so long will remain embedded for the next 50-years. That's not a legacy that I am sure none of us wants to leave.

Being part of the RICS Building Confidence conversation looks like a place to start.