CoreNet Global #CNGLondon Summit gets underway…..’Communities’ & parties

Hi all,

CoreNet Global Summits are always a day longer than advertised, have you noticed? Like here at #CNGLondon, the 2012 London Summit, where we have had a day of activity already! It officially starts tomorrow morning, running through Tues-Wed. Three for the price of two….

From 1-3pm we had Community Connections, based around what were four communities in CoreNet Global, now five (more of that below). The Workplace Community is probably our favourite – its surely the loudest, and maybe the most enthusiastic. But it is packed full of great professional knowledge and talent from around the world. We perhaps shouldn’t single people out, as many many people have made it what it is today (I think that I went to the first one in 2009? – maybe wrong, but it was early days for sure). But I am going to single out Kate North of e-Work as she is always in the midst of the Workplace Community, wherever that is in the world. She is a driving force – keep it up Kate!

I attended the other Community meeting, the very first in EMEA, of the *new* Strategic Facilities Management Community. There were only 12 of us..! BUT, it was a very worthwhile meeting, the second only after #CNGSanDiego a few months ago, where we knocked about the aims and objectives of the new Community. It was expertly chaired and facilitated by Ian Dunning, Global Facilities Director at Unilever PLC, and attended by a small but “strategic” group of senior FM leaders, from client side (end users), major service providers (CBRE, Cushman & Wakefield) and startegic consultants (IBM Consulting).

The SFMC, as it is called, will be a valuable addition to the other four established Communities within CoreNet Global. Having spent quite a lot of time over recent months on our own study in this field, “Raising The Bar – enhancing the strategic role of Facilities Management”, for the RICS, we know how important it is to define what “strategy” is, and how FM can become truly strategic. I am presenting some of the findings at 4pm tomorrow, Tuesday, in the breakout session called “Exclusive Property Trends Analysis”.

In fact, there is more to say about RICS and CoreNet, as they have (today) signed an MoU…..more of that another time!

But don’t let yourself think its all work and no play at a CoreNet Summit (far from it, in fact, if I remember #CNGDallas in 2009….no, I don’t remember all of it actually, as it happens)…….

WHICH PARTY DO YOU FOLLOW?….no, wrong, nothing to do with politics (although, thanks to Johnson Controls GWS, we did get to the 27th Floor of Millbank Tower; if you know the London political scene, just down the road at Westminster, you will know this to be the home of Tony Blair, Alastair Campbell and others in the UK Labour Party in their ‘glory years’!)

Now, party-time @CNGSummits has little to do with CoreNet selection and more to do with ‘natural selection’ – only the fittest will survive, and rightly so. It leads to a stronger species of CRE&FM professional over many years of evolution! OK, it is a bit of a lottery which coach you get onto, and if you go off to phone your kids “goodnight” at the wrong time (as I did) you may find yourself wandering around looking for the coach you were invited onto! But, I’m sure that the hospitality of the major service providers was good as usual, and we all had a great evening of networking, or just talking about life with people who have become friends over many such CoreNet evenings!

So, up we get early (for me, early; I just write these days – no cold railway platforms at 6am for me) tomorrow, for a packed agenda of speakers and breakout sessions. Starting with “Leadership 2.0: the science behind great leaders”. Its all about Emotional Intelligence……before I get tired and emotional, I’m off to bed…….especially as my room TV doesn’t work, so I’ve missed BBCNewsnight! UK customer service, huh?

Paul Carder, Founder/Director – Occupiers Journal Limited

twitter: @occupiers or @WorkAndPlace ; [email protected]