Members' Forum Toronto 2018 - Executive Summary

This year, Members’ Forum started with an icebreaker, an informal speed networking event allowing delegates to get to know one another. This was followed by an evening reception, where a warm welcome was made by local CIOB members in Americas, Clint Kissoon FCIOB and Virginia Borkoski, FCIOB and CIOB Trustee. A special welcome was given to the Global Student Challenge (GSC) Teams, as the final of the competition was held alongside the Forum.

The inclusion of the GSC teams from universities around the world brought greater diversity to the Forum. When not taking up the Challenge, the students attended various meetings and activities within the Members’ Forum timetable and we encouraged them to make the most of the opportunity to network with global construction leaders.

All the meetings took place at the Westin Harbour Castle Hotel, a great location in downtown Toronto providing delegates an opportunity to explore Toronto during free time. Due to the restructure of committee representation as a result of the One CIOB project, we had the largest overall delegation we’d ever experienced and approximately half of the delegates attending were experiencing their first Members’ Forum event.  An induction pack and webinar were provided to all attending ahead of time to prepare them for what was to come!

The following morning kicked off with the Institute EGM and AGM, where I was handed over the Presidency from Rebecca Thompson, who I would like to say thanks to for her fantastic year as CIOB President, the second female President of the CIOB. You can take a look at her highlights from her year in her recent blog.

There were three workshops conducted this year. For the first workshop an update on the CIOB Construction Quality Commission was given. This Presidential Commission was set up by Rebecca Thompson at Members’ Cardiff 2017 and we were fortunate to be joined by Past President Paul Nash, as Chair of the Commission to discuss work to date and gather further insight from the Members’ Forum delegates. Further information about the commission can be found on Paul’s blog.

The second workshop focused on the sustainable future of professional bodies, discussing issues such as; what is the right focus for CIOB globally, and what a professional body in construction should look like in the 21^st Century. Delegates brainstormed on a number of associated issues including emerging and emerging future technologies, climate change, skills to name a few. Finally, the third workshop was on the CIOB Corporate Plan, the kick-off for creating the 2020-2025 Corporate Plan. We’re grateful to all of the input and enthusiasm members showed during these workshops as their ideas and thoughts will help us to steer the organisation in the right direction over the coming years.

We were very fortunate to be invited to PCL Construction’s offices for a site visit with a video tour of the Mackenzie Vaughan Hospital site. PCL gave the CIOB delegation a very warm welcome, with a presentation on their offsite modular manufacturing, followed by a tour of the fabrication factory. Special thanks to Troy Galvin, Manager of PCL Agile, who presented to all delegates and conducted the factory tour. More information on PCL and the site can be found reading Troy’s blog.

The Members’ Forum meeting is the core of the Members’ Forum event, and it is the main reason for bringing together all of our delegates from across the globe, allowing a two way dialogue between Members’ Forum delegates, the Board of Trustees, and CIOB Executive Team. The past few years of Members’ Forum has seen increased representation from our Novus Groups – the young voice of the industry. Dylan Rishworth, CIOB Novus Representative attending Members’ Forum on behalf of Sub-Saharan Africa, explains why it is so important to have the young voice heard at events such as Members’ Forum. The Members’ Forum kicked off with an Institute overview, including reports from the Board of Trustees and the Executive Team, followed by updates from some important projects the Institute has been undertaking, including One CIOB. Feedback from the previous workshop on the Construction Quality Commission was given with a clear set of recommendations to be presented to the Board of Trustees. Reports given by each of the Regional representatives provided a valuable insight into the CIOB work that is being carried out across the world. This meeting is vitally important for sharing on information and initiatives and ensure the CIOB is heading in the best direction for the future, while meeting the needs of the membership.  

On the final day, a Debate event was held on the important issue of the Sustainable Future of the Construction Industry in the face of rapid urbanisation across the globe. There were two debate sessions; the first looking at the current state of the construction industry, followed by the future state of the industry. We had two panels - one of current leaders of the construction industry and another of the future leaders of the construction industry (students and Novus representatives), who debated issues including the skills shortage, diversity, digital futures and demands from society. Some interesting issues were raised, with thought-provoking discussions from both panels. View the media write-up to read more about the discussions of the debate and the full film will be available shortly as a CPD resource on the CIOB Academy website. Special thanks to CIOB Senior Vice President, Charles Egbu FCIOB for his excellent Chairmanship of this important debate.

Members’ Forum concluded with the President’s Inaugural Dinner, which was held at the beautiful Liberty Grand, a heritage building which was the former Ontario Government Building. The evening was opened with the fabulous violinist Grenville Pinto, who captured everyone’s attention with his amazing and energetic performance. This allowed me to then take to the stage to highlight my objectives for my Presidential year, including increased collaboration with other likeminded professional bodies and working together to face and tackle the future issues. We announced and celebrated the winners of the Global Student Challenge – huge congratulations to George Brown College for coming first, and to all the teams that took part. We were also honoured to receive the American Institute of Constructors (AIC) Constructor Certification Commission Founders Award, which I proudly accepted from Professor Roger Liska representing AIC. This is one example of how in my year of President I look forward to increased collaboration with other Professional Bodies.

I look forward to meeting more of the CIOB membership at various events over the coming year, and hearing your thoughts and ideas, particularly on solutions to the challenges we are confronted with in our industry.