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Think review part 2 - rhetoric to reality?

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My mantra for the Think event for this year was rhetoric to reality. It was about showing projects or practices that actually worked. I think we delivered this up to a point. There were some sessions I chaired or attended that either offered proof of the right directions that countries, regions, companies or individual schemes were taking. I'm afraid there were others where you felt the dreaded word greenwash was hovering not too far above. This is where I accept some of the analysis of the event from fellow bloggers Mel and Martin.

Think review part 1 - experience and highlights

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I've just come up for air after the marathon that was Think last week. My first involvement proper with an event on this scale and boy was it energy sapping. From meeting and greeting speakers, chairing conference sessions, firefighting when crises emerged, overseeing video and print coverage etc etc. And then to finish it off sit on a platform with the environment secretary, pontificate on policy and sum up all that was discussed and pick holes in his speech on the existing stock. Such was my state at the end Thursday that I subsequently misplaced most of the notes I had made during that day as well as my phone (it was discovered the morning after). My highlights?

Dunster and Egan - the unlikey pair

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Two fundamental problems and challenges facing the industry in the past decade. Two figures with wildly different backgrounds and perspectives who come up with eerily similar conclusions. Step forward the unlikely pair - industrialist Sir John Egan and the architect Bill Dunster.

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Egan wrote his report, Rethinking Construction, ten years ago and there's a good catch-up on what has, and hasn't, happened since in last Friday's Building.

Last minute thinking

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Final preparations for next week's Think 08 event - writing speeches, preparing notes for fellow speakers etc etc. I'll be chairing four sessions at the conference on Wednesday and Thursday at ExCeL, including three discussion panels, which should be challenging. I've been mugging up on the great energy debate, ridding the industry's waste mountain and the skills challenge, no mean feats. All should be good discussions, especially the first and last ones.

The Apprentice wishes you Happy Greenwash Day!

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Last night, I belatedly watched the Apprentice on iPlayer, wherein Kevin Shaw, a strange West Country mutant blend of David Brent and Vicky Pollard with a stuttering gaze, was fired for failing to flog his line of eco-themed 'greetings' cards to Celebrations and Clinton Cards. Tesco bought 1,500 - a miniscule, hedging PR investment for one of the UK's most-watched shows: there wouldn't be enough cards to go round if you sent one to each store.