I'm not really supposed to praise the competition (or CBRE get all hot and bothered with me) but, with my BURA hat on, I'm allowed.
And I have to say: credit where it's due, in respect of the brilliant event run by Eversheds and my friends at King Sturge on Monday.
A lovely job boys, a lovely job. Messrs Ludiman and Sorrell, you are to be seriously congratulated. Truth be told, I am somewhat green with envy about it all really.
Of course they were lucky to deploy the lovely Susan Brown corralling all the troops, but there was no doubt that it was an extremely ambitious endeavour, beautifully and gracefully executed.
The deal was this: Stewart Jackson MP (Shadow Spokesperson for Regeneration) opened proceedings by laying out his thinking thus far in respect of the emerging Conservative Green Paper.
The 90 or so hand-picked regeneration types in the room, from all aspects of the sector, were then broken out in to eight (yes, eight !) cross-sector workshops to brainstorm out the various elements: community, housing, education, health, sustainability and so forth, with the shadow minister dropping into each in turn.
After this, we reconvened and each group gave a feedback report; this will all be knitted into a coherent response and put on a website in the next few weeks (no doubt, in the fullness of time, Susan will come onto the blog and explain where to find the website. Blimey ! It all makes my head hurt a little).
Well it was quite a trip I can tell you. I was in the Housing Workshop, led by the ever-luminescent (and ever-witty) Trevor Beattie of the HCA.
When the shadow minister swung by, there was indeed a huge amount of unanimity in the room (if you ignore the fact that dear old Nigel Smith asserted that local authority councils are the last refuge of the bewildered and the confused to which we toadies all cried "you anti-democrat" and "up with localism").
Apparently there was less unanimity in the Health Workshop, where there was something of a dispute as to the role of the health sector in regeneration. Is it an essential component or a red herring, obscuring focus ? Well, hey! All - dare I say - healthy debate and, actually, terrific fun.
And I am greatly encouraged, really. Partly because Stewart Jackson himself is more and more assured about the coherence of his position (and there's nothing our sector needs more than clarity) and partly because of the level of realism I saw being exhibited by the practitioners present.
For months I have been going into rooms where people have sooner or later used the words "when things get back to normal". This makes me want to scream. In fact, in recent weeks I HAVE taken to screaming something to the effect of "things are never going to GET back to 'normal' you moron! Get over it !"
So I was very relieved to find that there is, if only in certain echelons, a growing understanding that we as a sector will have to adapt and find new ways of working if we are to survive.
And I counted THREE mentions of "City Challenge", so my campaign is certainly hotting up.
It was a *great* event - but blimey my head hurts! Have blogged on it here. Jackie, lead em from the trenches!