If it's not one darned thing, it's another! No sooner do I get through the BURA@20 Conference last week then we have to start working on our BURA@20 Seminar at Mipim: "More-for-Less Regeneration".
No peace for the wicked, I guess.
The BURA@20 Seminar will be the hot ticket this year, to be held in the Room Croisette, Gray D'Albion Hotel, 38 Rue des Serbes, Cannes, at midday on Wednesday 17 March.
We are trying to achieve rather a lot at this event but it promises much, and fresh from our interesting debates of last week, we already have a great deal of interest.
BURA always aims to combine an interesting mix of people - life's rich tapestry if you like - and we have tried to get a balance between private sector and public sector speakers (and also, from the local authority side, both a senior officer and a distinguished elected member).
I will be chairing (and exercising a bit of nanny whip) setting the agenda: in the run-up to the most uncertain general election ever known, how do we chart a new course for regeneration in more-for-less Britain?
Our BURA "Framework" document will be launched (more of this on the blog this week) and then leading speakers including our own Martin Samworth, MD of CB Richard Ellis UK, Keith Mitchell, MD of Peter Brett Associates; Jim Wilkie, deputy chief executive of Wirral Metropolitan borough council, and Alex King MBE, deputy leader of Kent county council, will debate aspects of the new emerging world in which we find ourselves.
In a year when Mipim will suffer a serious decline in public sector participation, we place the focus securely onto the public sector. We will be exploring what many exemplar local authorities are doing to continue to encourage growth in their community while we wait for the market to return (supposing it does, in a form we understand!) to get "top-down" projects delivered?
The major theme is that there is a serious disconnect. Local authorities are sitting on billions of pounds worth of assets, but - short term - the regeneration sector is stymied for the lack of a cost effective route to market. How do we forge open, transparent, defensible relationships?
BURA is working with our members to bring opportunities (de-risked as far as is possible by public sector intervention) to the attention of the international market in a more systematic and streamlined way.
Anyone from the UK attending Mipim really should be there (and if you can't come I will need a note from your mum). You need only to RSVP to Ross Sturley on chartlane@chartlane.co.uk to secure a place.
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