Insight
SWIP Conference key takeaways
24 Nov 2023
Tim Danson
Director
At the recent South West Infrastructure Partnership (SWIP) conference, Director, Tim Danson, joined a range of panel speakers discussing the future of infrastructure in the South West. By delving into the complexities of creating positive and lasting legacies in infrastructure, it was evident that - whilst challenging - achieving truly sustainable outcomes for infrastructure is within reach where collaborative innovation and strategic thinking is used to drive practical action.
Here, Tim provides his insights from the event highlighting his five key takeaways, which emphasise the importance of comprehensive research, meaningful engagement, and the power of sharing information for collective success.
I was very grateful to be asked to be a panel member at the South West Infrastructure Partnership conference yesterday, which focused on delivering practical action that will shape the SWIP Vision into a reality. Speakers on the day included a diverse and engaging suite of professionals and future industry engineers, and the panel comprised Pick Everard, Sustrans, Bristol University, Cosmic and Andrea Davis (Cabinet Member for Climate, Environment & Transport, Devon County Council and Chairman, Peninsula Transport).
From the panel discussions, it was clear that delivering positive and lasting legacies for infrastructure is both a complex and emotive beast, but one that is achievable with some big thinking and consensus working.
My top five takeaways from the session yesterday were:
- We must conduct deep and broad homework on the regions, environments, communities and businesses that we work in, looking at significant past and future movements to guide the outcomes of initiatives and development.
- We need to advance our homework through extensive and meaningful engagement, capturing the fundamental needs of a diverse and evolving demography.
- Systems thinking is critical. If we don’t understand and look after all the moving parts of the machine, it won’t work as efficiently. Digitalisation and servitisation should be on the tip of our tongues in this context.
- Whilst we may not be able to ‘action everything now’, we need to make sure our assets and technologies are #resilient and #adaptable to change. Understanding the built environment’s current vulnerabilities is a foundation for success here.
- Sharing information and data through open source and other well recognised mechanisms will ensure we celebrate our successes, and others in our wider system can align with and benefit from best practice.