A lovely guy came up to me after the Sheffield gig the other day and thanked me for being kind to him a few months ago, when he had on-spec approached me after he had been made redundant by St Modwen.
Nigel Cunis - who is clearly a very talented bloke - has now found gainful employment at Sheffield City Council in their property department. So that's great for him and even greater for Sheffield.
It was a delight to meet him, and his colleague, Nalin Seneviratne, a pair of complete charmers, both ex-private sector and both great appointments for any council badly needing professionals who bring a bit of business discipline and rigour to a challenging property portfolio.
I can see the two of these as being very proactive in this market; they clearly had not missed the fact that it could be land of opportunity out there, and this is a refreshing new mindset for a local authority.
There should be more opportunities for people to cross from the private sector to the public sector, and back, for the health of regeneration. This should not be the rarity, this should be the norm. I always encourage folk I meet from the private sector (like those made redundant in recent years from real estate consultancies) to have a stint in the public sector. And vice versa.
It's done wonders for the likes of Reg, who is now a fully rounded urban regeneration professional if ever you needed an exemplar (despite his slightly irreverent remarks on this blog) and I would encourage others to follow suit. Out of your comfort zone, you learn. You develop.
If I'm going to be entirely honest, I had no real recollection of Nigel having contacted me so many months ago, but thank gawd I'd had the presence of mind to be kind to him at the time (although, as I was getting about five such approaches each week at that point perhaps I could be forgiven if some got overlooked!)
These days if an unemployed professional comes to me of course, I just direct them to BURA Connect and at least they then have a ready-made network to tap into. The first phone interviews with those individuals who would like to be part of BURA Connect are happening today and pretty soon we will have a network of "BURA Connect Associates" to begin to put out into member organisations whenever the need arises.
Very soon, anyone wishing to register with Connect - unemployed professionals looking for work, or someone with an urgent skill requirement - will be able to go to www.bura.org.uk to be routed through to a workable more-for-less solution. Nice.
I was interested to see that Leeds has decided to collaborate with its rivals Bradford, Calderdale, Kirklees and Wakefield to promote the "Bradford-Leeds City Region" as a whole at MIPIM.
I'm going to see them next Thursday morning and I'm a great believer in this type of collective action and economy of scale. I'm not sure where this leaves Sheffield, but I would certainly have faith in Mr Cunis and Mr Seneviratne to grab any opportunities going, whether at MIPIM or elsewhere. Excellent pair of lads.
Yes, I was certainly impressed by Sheffield.
Jackie, I'm not sure about 'fully rounded' (nearly choked on my cereal); I think I have yet to be beaten up by a Committee (always goes quite smoothly for me) but I guess my time will come. And you can stop smiling MB. And you DH.
I totally agree though, it has been an excellent experience coming over. I actually think my situation (contracted to the Local Authority on very flexible terms for them and for a defined project) is a brilliant way for people and skills to cross over. Have been here for 9 months now and my projects have got at least 12 to go.
It helps that we have a top notch Exec and for that I'm thankful (actually I wouldn't have made the leap had not one chap in particular here talked me in to it) but I don't think this authority is the exception.