Please take a look at some of our previous events.
Essex 'Constructing the Future ' Conference & Annual Construction Marketplace 2012
Annual Construction Marketplace - Wednesday 30th March 2011 - Shire Hall, Chelmsford
Essex 'Constructing the Future ' Conference & Annual Construction Marketplace 2012
The latest Build Essex event held at the Basildon Sporting Village 18th April 2012 was a resounding success. For the first time the event was preceded by a conference element titled 'Constructing the Future' in an effort to help local businesses gain as much information as possible about forthcoming changes to legislation and how this affects the industry as a whole. The event was held in the main sports hall and whilst the cavernous space made the accoustics difficult, the general feedback has been that the content was interesting and on-topic.
Around 250 attended and met with representatives from 27 construction buyers and business support organisations. Charlie Norris, Construction Director from Morgan Sindall and the project manager for the construction of the venue last year, the chair for the event, welcomed delegates who then heard from Councillor Derrick Louis, Essex County Council on the topics of economic growth, supporting local businesses and transparency and access to public sector supply chains.
More presentations followed (click to download)
There then followed a choice of three breakout sessions based on the main three topics covered earlier:
(Please click to download the presentations)
The general networking then started, during which the delegates circulated round the exhibitor stands reporting that they also found it a useful forum to network amongst other suppliers, and a valuable way of finding out the latest news and updates within the sector.
Both Councillor Derrick Louis and Peter Geall (Head of Infrastructure Strategy for Essex County Council and Chair of Build Essex) agreed that since it's beginnings two and a half years ago, Build Essex has gone from strength to strength and provides a varied program for the organisations involved, the addition of the conference element to this event a prime example and continues to offer great support for local construction and built environment organisations.
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Annual Construction Marketplace 2011
Over 380 local businesses attended the Build Essex Annual Construction Marketplace held at Shire Hall on the 30th March. The event was an opportunity for networking between suppliers, main contractors and business support organisations in the construction and related industries. Local firms had the chance to find out how to join the supply chain for the Council and other public sector partners in the region and talk face-to-face with the Authority’s Framework Contractors.
Over 400 firms had registered for the event but not everyone could make it on the day, possibly due to the closure of Chelmsford’s main car park, but those that did attend very quickly made lots of new promising business contacts. On average each delegate spoke to over 8 potential new customers and set up 5 future follow on meetings in just a couple of hours! There was a huge amount of business and pricing requests transacted on the day.
Jack Bowie, Director of DB Construction, Clavering, Essex said: ‘We attended the first Build Essex event in September 2009, and, as a direct result of this, were successful in gaining work valued at approximately £100K thanks to the relationships made at Build Essex
We have also already priced £1.8m of work for other Build Essex main contractor partners and are waiting to see if we have won any.
As a direct result of this year’s Build Essex Construction Marketplace we have tenders coming in from at least three companies (Barnes, Denne and Mansells) and conservatively I know the total of the works to be priced will be in excess of £3.69m. ‘Not a bad days work.’
“To help us to build our growing business we are seeking to fill up to eight new apprentice positions that we have advertised on the Build Essex website and have already had some responses.
• Highways maintenance engineers
• civil engineering technicians
• accountants
• business administrators
If you know anyone who may be interested in applying for any of these apprenticeship positions just ask them to register with www.buildessex.co.uk as a member of the public and search for apprenticeship vacancies:”
The new Build Essex website adds new and valuable features such as advertising for new staff and apprentices and buying or selling surplus material through the Materials Exchange.
All in all Build Essex has given us opportunities to really discuss ‘proper business’ with the people who make the decisions – people we could never reach in other ways - and it works!’
David Holness, Holness Construction, Manningtree, Essex said: “I met May Gurney for the first time at the first Build Essex event at Stockbrook Manor. My company was invited to bid for work on Felmore primary School which then led to another project at Willowbrook school. The works on County Council funded projects to date are valued at c £300K and we are now one of May Gurney’s preferred suppliers for their Essex supply chain. As a result this year’s annual Build Essex Construction marketplace we are confident of winning work from other contractors estimated to be worth c.£400K.”
David feels that contacts made and work secured through Build Essex have enabled his company to ramp up their offer to clients from just the supply of carpentry and purpose made joinery to supply and fit of 1st and 2nd fix carpentry and purpose made joinery. “Build Essex had made a huge difference to our business by helping us to meet and build relationships with main contractors we otherwise could not get in touch with, and, it has provided us with visibility of a much wider range of projects which helps us to plan our business better. It is the best “Meet the Buyer” type event I have ever attended.”
There were some recurring themes in the comments we received from the delegates including:
• “ 8 meetings in four hours – it would have taken months to arrange that” / ”convenience of seeing all the main contractors in one place” / “direct access to Client”
• “identity of the appropriate people to contact” / “contact names of the relevant procurement people” / “gained so much information in such a short time”
• “meeting people previously only contacted by phone” / “putting faces to names”
• “the chance to portray our firm in a good light”
Councillor Derrick Louis, Essex County Council Cabinet Member for Major Projects and Commercial Services commented “The event was a great success and I’m pleased to have received such positive feedback from those who attended.”
Both delegates and exhibitors scored the event highly in their feedback (75% and 81% respectively) although there were a few firms that found it difficult to put themselves forward and raise their profile. However Build Essex is not just about network events. If you were unable to attend or don’t feel comfortable in a networking situation, remember that the network website can work for you 24/7.
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