First Q Network Autumn meeting in London

First Q Network Autumn meeting in London.

Our Autumn First Q meeting took place in London on the 19th and 20th of October, hosted by the UK member Chapmanbsdp.

We commented the current state of the 15 member companies, as well as the common projects that the members are developing together, many of which are in the Data Centre sector.

The forecasted consolidated figures for the end of 2023 were a €467M turnover and a staff of 4,269, representing a growth of 11% and 6% respectively compared to 2022. The budget for 2024 was also approved.

We reviewed the status of the Activity Plan for 2023-24, as well as the current progress and future activities planned for the 7 working groups. Three group coordinators were invited to present their reports: ESG & Sustainability, BIM and Marketing group.

On Friday the 20th, we had two invited experts: Alan King – Head of Global Membership Strategy & AI at the Institution of Mechanical Engineers – presenting a talk titled “Harnessing the Potential of Artificial Intelligence,” who captured everyone’s attention with the possibilities that this revolutionary technology is bringing to change the rules of the engineering market; and Deepika Singhal – Associate Director of Chapmanbdsp and expert in Environmental & Sustainability – who talked about NABERS, an Australian built environment rating system that BRE UK (owners of BREEAM) has recently adopted for office buildings with two specific products: “Design for Performance” and “Energy for Offices”. The latter focuses on measuring in-use efficiency consumption against a set of benchmarks for its rating.

That same Friday, we also had the opportunity to visit the public gallery of NLA (New London’s Architecture), where Federico Ortiz – Head of Content – explained to us about London’s urban planning and architectural history and evolution through large-scale models of the capital that they are continuously updating.

Later that day, we visited the Battery Power Station which Chapmanbdsp presented at the WOW Festival. We could see in person what a great job was done over a long period of 11 years.

The next general First Q meeting will take place in Lisbon in April.