Research Foundation conferences kindle property and construction debate

Citation

Barnett, C. (2001), "Research Foundation conferences kindle property and construction debate", Journal of Property Investment & Finance, Vol. 19 No. 2. https://doi.org/10.1108/jpif.2001.11219bac.001

Research Foundation conferences kindle property and construction debate

31 August-1 September and 6-8 September London, UK

Research Foundation conferences kindle property and construction debate

The importance of research as the key to future practice was underlined at two recent conferences, as Claire Barnett reports.

All good ideas must start somewhere and today's surveying practice probably began life as an idea in someone's head. Conferences provide an ideal backdrop for the cultivation of burgeoning ideas through presentation and debate. This year at the RICS Research Foundation Conferences, COBRA for construction (see Figure 1) and The Cutting Edge for real estate, there was evidence of the future thinking that is the backbone of a vibrant profession.

Figure 1 Greenwich Naval College - location of the COBRA Conference 2000

Any conference is only as successful as the participants it attracts and the issues it raises. The Research Foundation was therefore fortunate to draw a high-quality audience from an impressive professional and geographic spectrum for both COBRA and The Cutting Edge. There was no accident in the recurrence of certain themes common to both events. Time and again delegates heard the terms sustainability, technology, client/customer needs, risk management and best value. It is these issues that are key to the development of our industry and it is research into these issues that is crucial to enable the industry to move forward.

"Research is the fundamental catalyst to innovation" is a message expounded by RICS junior vice president Chris Powell in his keynote address to the COBRA audience. Powell went on to submit that the only escape from the current catch-22 dilemma of the construction industry – low margins which make research unaffordable – is through improved ownership and sponsorship and a tightening of the research focus to concentrate on key issues.

This message was taken up and amplified by the conference's other keynote speaker, John Connaughton, chairman of the innovation and research committee of the Construction Industry Council (CIC). CIC's innovation and research remit is to "identify and promote areas of innovation, research and development required by the construction industry". Some of the areas singled out for further research and development by today's key players in the industry were sustainable construction, technology and best practice.

The clear message from all the speakers at COBRA was that the construction industry must take responsibility for its own future and provide the impetus in identifying those areas of research needed to raise its own profile and image.

The focus on empiricism was also evident at The Cutting Edge real estate conference. Keynote speaker Professor Charles Goodhart entertained the audience with his stimulating and pragmatically named paper, "Housing price inflation and the real economy". Here was a topic with implications for us all, delivered by a former member of the monetary policy committee and one time chief monetary adviser at the Bank of England. Professor Goodhart is a prominent academic in the field of economics and his part in making the conference the success that it was is surely a sign of the incipient blurring of boundaries between disciplines. He gave the delegates inside track information that there would be a financial crisis in China in 2015, triggered by a real estate collapse. As he said, "You heard it here first".

Professor Stephen Roulac (Figure 2) is also no stranger to the real world. As head of the Roulac Group, an international strategy, financial economics and transaction consulting firm, as well as Distinguished Visiting Professor at the University of Ulster, he is arguably the most respected name in the real estate consulting business. A bad image is not a problem suffered by the construction industry alone, according to Professor Roulac. In his keynote address he contended that, until recently, real estate was described as "something a person sort of failed into". Happily for the industry, there is light on the horizon. Professor Roulac now sees the tide beginning to turn with the advent of new technologies, business models and services leading to a long awaited revolution in the property industry.

Figure 2 Professor Stephen Roulac (left), Key note speaker at Cutting Edge presents a bottle of champagne to Spike Boydell of the University of the South Pacific, Fiji

Emerging talent

The obvious underlying theme to both events is that of future thinking. For the industry to have any kind of a future it is essential that we encourage and nurture the new generation of thinkers and innovators who will be involved in making today's future thinking a reality.

One of the main aims of the RICS Research Foundation is to recognise and reward emerging talent in the broad spectrum of the built and natural environment. The Foundation was therefore delighted to be able to use COBRA and The Cutting Edge as a backdrop for the presentation of awards in the fields of construction and real estate.

Dilanthi Amaratunga of the University of Salford was presented with a cheque by Chris Powell for her work, "Theory building in facilities management research: case study methodology", awarded the best paper prize at the Postgraduate research in the built and human environment in the UK conference (Figure 3).

Figure 3 RICS junior vice-president, Chris Powell (left), presents a cheque to Dilanthi Amaratunga, University of Salford, for the best post-graduate research paper

Figure 4 RIDS president Jonathan harris congratulates Paul Watson of the Nottingham Trent University (right) winner of the best undergraduate dissertation

RICS president Jonathan Harris presented prizes at The Cutting Edge conference dinner. Peter Wyatt of the University of the West of England and Practice Briefing Editor of Property Management was congratulated on winning the Society of Property Researchers' best paper prize for "An investigation into the nature of the valuation service offered to business occupiers". Christopher Hedley and Alex Catalano of Estates Gazette presented Paul Watson of Nottingham Trent University, co-author of last year's winning paper, with their jointly-funded prize for best undergraduate dissertation for his work on retail zoning (Figure 4).

On a more light-hearted note, Spike Boydell (Figure 2) from the University of the South Pacific was presented with a bottle of champagne to acknowledge the outstanding distance he had travelled to attend The Cutting Edge and to help distract him from the dismal London weather.

Papers presented at the RICS Research Foundation conferences are freely available from the Foundation Web site at http://www.rics-foundation.org. For more information on RICS Research Foundation conferences, contact Claire Barnett. Tel: +44 (0)20 7334 3873; E-mail: claire@rics-foundation.org