What is the process and who is involved in the property development cycle? Where do designers fit in, and who do they work with? Our sponsors Avison Young – represented by Jonny Lowe – and DTM Legal – Isabel Rial and Guy Thomas – put together a fantastic October evening session for us to find out.
We started the session by being introduced to their own careers and career paths, as well as being told about a current project in development. We could see their design plans and see where it was going to happen out of the office of their window. So, how did it get to this point?
Academy group was split between our sponsors, and were tasked with matching the types of activity that would happen at different stages of development with the people that were responsible for them.
This activity really opened their eyes in understanding how collaborative the whole process is, and how important each person’s skills are in making sure the project is realised. As they demonstrated on a jenga tower, when we remove pieces – people, skills and processes – from the tower, the whole structure gets weaker.
This evening session was also a fantastic opportunity for the students to get to know our sponsors. They offered their own personal insights to how they got to where they are, what they enjoy doing and some pieces of advice for our participants. It was extremely valuable to introduce the group to the wide range of careers and career pathways available to them, as they are still considering where they feel they might fir in the built environment.
We finished the session on some top pieces of advice for the Academy participants:
“Work hard!”, Guy Thomas
“Do what you enjoy”, Jonny Lowe
“Do what you enjoy and be humble”, Isabel Rial
Thanks again to our amazing sponsors for supporting the PLACED Academy and sharing their experience, knowledge and time with the group.