BURA@20 yesterday at the old German Gym in King's Cross - what a party! Still nursing the hangover.
Well now! I think it was a success. Certainly it was a lot more cerebral than some of the daft industry events that I've been invited to recently, in the run up to the general election.
In the conference session, we had a sort of fireside chat with each of the regeneration spokespeople proffered by the three main parties.
It wasn't designed to be adversarial or confrontational, but more to tease out emerging policy; dare I say, to lead the witness a little.
Poor Gordon Marsden MP (John Denham's PPS) was a bit between a rock and a hard place, having been brought in off the subs bench in the first place, as he was supposed to be somewhere else at the same time so he was a tad late for us and that knocked the schedule a bit, but whatever! (Never work with children or animals, or politicians huh.)
He did share some real existential angst with us about his constituency in Blackpool (to which we responded with alacrity, BURA being rather keen on seaside towns, rather besotted in fact).
Stewart Jackson MP (Conservative spokesperson) was altogether more relaxed, and more self-assured and confident of his brief than ever I've seen him.
The dialogue with John Carleton of Local Partnerships felt authoritative and grown up; hats off to both really. And Julia Goldsworthy, the Lib Dem MP (who I hadn't met before), was something of a revelation: feisty, clear, articulate and charismatic (my gaffer at CBRE, the wondrous Adrian Bunnis, was seriously rather taken).
I was grateful to all of them for their insights and I was grateful to my interlocutors from the BURA board for their gentle non-Paxman-like, but thoroughly intellectual, style of questioning.
EG's Big Cheese, Damian Wild, then introduced my own Big Cheese, Peter Damesick of CBRE, who gave us a market view of the future of regeneration in a recession (which was a little like being hit by an express train, but it had to be said and we certainly needed it) and we launched BURA Connect (which you will hear more, a lot more, about in the next few weeks) before I was left to wrap up and try to plot us a course for the next 20 years.
And then, natch, we had a drink or two. Actually, I may have had three or four.
In the next few days we (or, rather, Dr Paul Evans, my Vice Chair, who is the brains-behind-the-operation) will be sweeping up all of it: the BURA response to recent green papers; our conversations with the regeneration spokespeople; our take on any leaks in manifesto commitments (or any other halfway-relevant announcements that we can make sense of) into a communiqué (this wretched term that I can't seem to ditch) with our six (might it be seven? No, make that six) themes for the future of regeneration.
Our blueprint for the way forward drawing on 20 years' hard graft and, frankly, knowing better than anyone exactly what works and what doesn't. No mean feat for poor old Paul to pull off there, but he was a senior civil servant at the parent department and he's had the training (anyway it's all his fault that I'm in this fine mess, so he can bloody well pull his finger out).
Quite wonderful to see so many old lags turning out for us there. Quite a gathering of the clans. BURA boasts an eclectic membership: The weird and the wonderful; The purely commercial and the strictly wacky.
Life's rich tapestry indeed, and a lot of true love flying around the room.
If my name is being taken in vain I think I had better have the ability to answer back.
If you are reading this and a BURA member then we will be in touch to gather up thoughts and ideas.
If you are reading this and not a BURA member then you can either:
join and avoid Jackie mentioning you in the blog, possibly with added adjectives;
or post any comments here for the moment.
P