Following the recent next step of the road map to the end of lockdown, hospitality venues have been allowed to serve people outdoors and subject to other Covid measures, including social distancing. This Wednesday, we will bring together those who manage and market venues to look ahead to get a picture of what the summer will look like.

Leading our speaker panel will be Katie Avon, Director of Marketing for Grosvenor Britain & Ireland, whose heartland is London's West End where they support 1,000 businesses. Joining Katie, who will discuss the group's al fresco dining plans for Mayfair, will be will be representatives from Church House Westminster, Dishoom, Lambeth Palace & Rich Mix, and others from across London. Please book this free interactive discussion to share your plans and expectations.

We also invite Urbano member businesses and others who are managing the return of staff to their offices and shared office spaces to book and give their own timetables for staff returning. In what we hope will be a showcase for those places openings to visitors, we want to provide a supportive event which allows a realistic exchange of the expectations of corporate and personal customers.

The Government has published the draft guidance which accompanies the January 2021 consultation on the Future Buildings Standard, Part L and Part F of the Building Regulations and how amendments to regulations and documents will affect new commercial and existing residential property, including refurbishments and extensions. 

Our guest for this session was Owen Edwards, Technical and Training Director at Butler & Young. Butler & Young Approved Inspectors is a nationwide fully integrated multi disciplinary compliance service from a national network of offices. 

Owen looks at the newly published Performance-Based Policy Framework for assessing energy use and carbon emissions in large commercial and industrial buildings. 
Responses to the consultation have to be in by April 13th, 2021.

Our speakers for this event were Sofie Pelsmakers and Ming Hu. 

Sofie Pelsmakers first spoke at an Urbano Zero Carbon/Build & UWACTE event in 2013, following the publication of her book The Environmental Design Pocket (now on it's 2nd edition!). 

An expert in sustainable design and architecture, she is co-founder of Architecture for Change, a not-for-profit environmental building and research organisation, with the mission of challenging the way we design and build. 

She is now Assistant Professor of Sustainable Housing Design/Architecture at Tampere University in Finland and is co-author of the new book, Everything Needs to Change: Architecture and the Climate Emergency from RIBA Publishing. 

Joining Sofie on this special event was Ming Hu, Assistant Professor at School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation, University of Maryland. 

Ming specialises in high-performance building design, parametric modelling, Life Cycle assessment and building performance measurement. Ming is author of Net Zero Energy Building: Predicted and Unintended Consequences. 

Ming & Sofie explored the theme of 'Zero Carbon in Architecture & Construction: Challenges and Unintended Consequences' and offer us a global perspective on how different countries address the need to meet Paris Agreement climate change commitments.

This event examines changes to the Future Homes Standard, including Approved Documents for Part F, L and guidance on overheating in residential buildings (new and existing).  This presentation also looked at how the changes to Building Regulations will address the next stages in the promised journey towards zero carbon in construction.

The guest for this session was Geoff Wilkinson, Managing Director of Wilkinson Construction Consultants, award-winning Approved Inspectors. 

Geoff is a qualified Chartered Surveyor and  Fire Engineer, and appears frequently in the national and international press, TV and radio, and writes a regular column on Building Regulations in Architects Journal.

In 2021, two important changes are set to advance the opportunities for smaller companies to win work through public sector tenders. The first is the Social Value Framework which went live on January 1st, and other is the Green Paper on Transforming Public Procurement out for consultation until March 10th.

Our panellists are Ben Carpenter, Chief Executive of Social Value UK, the professional body for social value and impact management, and Rebecca Rees, Partner at Trowers & Hamlins, where Rebecca, a national expert in public procurement law, co-leads the Public Procurement Practice. Ben & Rebecca will examine the key elements in both regulations, including the likely implications and identified issues - and opportunities for smaller companies in national and local contracts. 

We will then also hear from Neil Capstick, Founder of The Social Value Practice and Executive Compass, and a seasoned social value and procurement professional.  Neil look at potential barriers and opportunities social value presents to SMEs when bidding. Our fourth panellist is Urbano's Co-Director, Caroline Brock, ex Work Winning Associate at AECOM and now a tender writer and bid management strategist & consultant who helps both large companies and SMEs win work in the public sector

As President Biden takes his oath of office on this day, we would like to use such an event to bring together different US and British companies to hear from someone at the sharp edge of future planning a city and to see what issues are shared with London. There will also be facilitated networking and plenty of chance to chat and connect.

Joy Sinderbrand, the Vice President for NYCHA's Recovery and Resilience Department.

Formed in the aftermath of Superstorm Sandy, Joy's department is responsible for managing a $3Bn budget aimed at repairing developments throughout New York impacted by Sandy, incorporating resilient design that will guide future construction throughout NYCHA’s portfolio.

The New York City Housing Authority is the body in charge of increasing opportunities for low and moderate income New Yorkers to access safe, affordable housing and facilitating social and community services. 

For this free event, Mark will is joined by a panel of Urbano Member architects to discuss the outlook for architecture in 2021, including industry trends, their approach to sustainability, both in terms of the economy and commitments to zero carbon, and the Built Environment as a whole. 

In a lively session, all sizes and practice specialities of architect practices are represented on the panel: AHR, FT Architects, Gluckman Smith, InsideOut, Mackay + Partners & The RPA Group.

They share their opinions on the proposed changes by the MHCLG to the Architects Act 1997, including competences of architects and registration.

Facilitated by Mark Herring, Urbano's Connector-In-Chief, our Urbano Engage Speaker Panel events use an interactive format to examine key themes of interest to business. For this event, we are pleased to partner with Cityzenith to look at Digital Twins, a market set to be worth $50Bn by 2026,  and how smart technology that connects areas and systems like maintenance, energy consumption, space utilization and traffic management, will be used to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

Digital Twins are virtual replicas of buildings, infrastructure and physical assets, fully interconnected with the data in and around them that optimize project performance, and help predict and visualize future outcomes.

Jason Thomas, Business Development Manager EMEA at Cityzenith, will lead on what Digital Twin technology is and its uses, and analyse results from Cityzenith's advanced Digital Twin software solutions for buildings, infrastructure, and smart cities. 

Facilitated by Mark Herring, Urbano's Connector-In-Chief, our Urbano Engage Speaker Panel events use an interactive format to examine key themes of interest to business. For this event, we are partnering with Urbano Members, Sakura Business Solutions and its Founder/Managing Director, Damian Connolly.

With offices in London and Dublin, Sakura and Damian are ideally positioned to both understand how we can use Ireland as a spring-board to trade with the EU after January 1st. Joining Mark & Damian will be Michelle Conaghan, VP - Emerging Technologies & New Forms of Investment UK, from IDA Ireland for what we hope will include an update on any Brexit trade agreement.

For this event, Mark Herring, Urbano's Connector-In-Chief is joined by Robert Kelly, Commercial Business Development Manager at Stewart Title UK, a leading provider of title insurance & real estate services. Robert kicks off this panel event by examining regulatory changes on permitted development and other factors that will affect housing and analysis of markets following previous stamp duty holidays.

Stuart Kaye, Founding Director of Adams Kaye, property law and private client specialists, gives his take on how his clients, including HNWs and overseas buyers, view property investment in the south-east in particular.

Richard Merrett, Head of Strategic Development at Simply Biz Mortgages , looks in details at lending requirements, liquidity and other factors that will influence the market next year, because your property is only worth what a lender will lend you you to buy it.

Stay tuned for the final verdict of attendees and the panel on whether our houses and flats will be worth more in a year's time than today,