It doesn’t get much more inspirational than being in the same room as the brightest young talent in the construction industry.
That was the scenario I was faced with when I recently attended the Home Builders Federation’s (HBF) Future Talent Conference over two days in Bedfordshire.
Being in the presence of like-minded, young people carving exciting careers within homebuilding like myself was such a great experience, and I learned so much from fellow attendees – and of course the expert guest speakers who shared their industry insights with an enthusiastic audience.
Having just been promoted to the role of Project Manager at Genesis Homes, I travelled down full of confidence and excited to learn about the hot topics important to the industry and how we could implement some of the tips shared with us by some of the biggest names in house building.
Not even the seemingly never-ending drive could dampen my spirits!
HBF Managing Director Neil Jefferson – somebody I enjoyed meeting when he visited us in Penrith to officially open our new HQ – welcomed us all with an opening speech, and it was really interesting to hear speeches from former Downing Street Press Secretary Paul Harrison, Oliver Novakovic from Barratt Developments and @accidentalfemaledeveloper Charlotte Edwards.
Charlotte has grown a huge social media following as she ‘accidentally’ built a really successful housing development business, and she is a role model to so many young people within construction, especially young women like myself operating in such a male-dominated industry.
Hearing how she has grown her business within five years despite gender stereotypes still existing was so inspirational, and she is proof to young females how much you can achieve by working hard and sticking in even if you are the only woman on a building site!
Another personal highlight for me was Rachel Danemann’s presentation on the Biodiversity Net Gain Implementation as it gave me so many ideas about how Genesis Homes can structure its developments around existing habitats and natural environments to ensure local wildlife is enhanced, not disturbed.
While progressing a planning application for our proposed development in Cleator Moor, hedgerows run through the site and it’s got me thinking even more about how we can sensitively incorporate the existing ecology of the area into the development to encourage local biodiversity.
As part of the conference, we participated in various workshops by being split into small groups and one thing that struck me is that, no matter what size the organisation – there were people from some of the largest homebuilders in the country – we all encounter the same issues, and we can all bring solutions to problems the industry faces.
While it was initially daunting being in a room of so many people, many of whom already knew each other or worked together, I left full of enthusiasm and with so many new ideas to implement at Genesis Homes at the end of the two days.
I was out of my comfort zone and that pushed me to speak to people I had never met before, and that has certainly helped my confidence in making new connections, some which I am certain will prove really beneficial in the long term.
One thing I’m 100 per cent sure of is that the homebuilding industry is in safe hands as the amount of amazing, knowledgeable young people from businesses large and small at the Future Talent showed.
Read more about Josie’s promotion here.