The SCRI Forum at the University of Salford is holding a one-day workshop entitled ‘Service-Driven Innovation’ on 26 June.
The majority of the value in our built environment is not concerned with the capital cost or even life cycle cost. It is concerned with the activities which go on inside and around our buildings. Understanding that value is generated by our built assets in this way means we need to better understand how end users engage with our buildings. Whether it is the performance of commercial assets, such as supermarkets, which are concerned with the behaviour of customers, or more complex notions of value for users of schools or offices, Service-Driven Innovation looks at the issue of how we create value by truly understanding our end users and delivering built assets that meet their needs.
If this description grabs you, register on-line here. SCRI’s Norman Gilkinson tells me this event should be of interest to clients, organisational management, constructors, professionals and local authorities. It may well also appeal to those who followed the 2005 BE Valuable initiative, headed up by Richard Saxon – his report remains (for me) one of the most valuable (ha!) and thought-provoking industry documents to emerge in recent years.
Update (09 June 2008): For those of you in (or able to get to northwest England), another SCRI email tells me about a forthcoming dinner and debate on Friday 4 July:
“Smart Clients, Smart Buildings, Smart Industry: This House believes that the UK construction industry is innovative enough to deliver the projects of the future.”
After-dinner speaker will be UK TV personality Johnny Ball, once a regular fixture on children’s television, presenting popular science and technology programmes for children and young people.
