What a PCA conference it was!
Our CEO Stephen Hodgson starts the conference off on the right note
CEO Stephen Hodgson was able to tell delegates that the PCA is in great shape (as if we didn’t know). Over the past year PCA has delivered 2000 days of training and membership is growing well above 400 firms and individuals. Great stuff.
Great speakers from across the industry spoke at the event.
- Stephen Garvin from BRE spoke eloquently about Flood resilience, something many PCA members are heavily involved in.
- Adrian Porter gave an impassioned and emotional view on what it’s really like being a victim of flooding. He was also able to share his successful application of a flood resilience system installed by a PCA member. The system has already saved his home from flooding twice since it was installed – amazing.
- Colin King of BRE Wales, was next up with a super session on the ‘unintended consequences of retrofit work’. This was fascinating. Colin gave us a real insight, which is backed by his vast experience of working with retrofit schemes and seeing the effects of poor planning and poor application. A no nonsense approach, which went down well.
- Neil May is Senior research fellow at UCL ‘Institute of Environmental design and Engineering’. He is part time CEO of the Sustainable Traditional Buildings Alliance (STBA) and has recently set up the UK centre for dampness in buildings. He gave an introduction to the aims of the new centre and outlined his hopes for a valuable outcome. He stressed the importance of research leading progress in our approaches to dampness in buildings. He also announced that the Property Care Association would be heavily involved in helping the research moving forward.
- I’d already attended Nicholas Heath’s presentation (see here), but it was worth a second listen and gave delegates further food for thought on retrofit, particularly those things to look out for on site.
- Hector Altamirano talked on mould in buildings, giving an interesting guide on growth conditions and the spread of mould.
- Caoimhin Connell was back with us for a second visit. He brought us up to date with very useful guidance on mould in buildings, from an occupational hygienist’s perspective. He was able to confirm that HSE have not prosecuted anyone for mould exposure in the UK and have no prosecutions pending. This included those working in environments like hay barns and paper mills, with spore counts are ‘normal’ at huge factors above anything we ever encounter in homes.
A well attended PCA conference includes the UK’s leading experts
Safeguard Europe, PamTies, Natural Cement and Triton were exhibiting so there were lots of great new innovative materials and methods to get to grips with.
In the evening we had our annual dinner and PCA awards to look forward to.
My own little firm have been winners of the Training and Staff development award twice before. We were PCA winners again this time, with another gong for training and staff development. Over the past seven years we have either won an award or being commended six times – brilliant.
Caoimhin shares a laugh with the PCA members
Lots of my buddies won awards too including Russell at DryFix, Adrian at Olympic, Timberwise and Safeguard too. Contractors of the year were Richardson and Starling. They are now very welcome members of the small and exclusive group, who have won that accolade before – well done.
A bit of a shin dig? In a way yes, but what the PCA awards and AGM do very well is show the enthusiasm and dedication of the PCA’s members. Anyone attending could see that when it comes to professionalism, hard work, innovation, ethical standards, research and training – PCA are the real deal.
CITB sponsor the training and staff development award, which is awarded after careful scrutiny by three independent judges (not PCA members). My thanks go to them for recognising my teams hard work. The biggest thanks go to the PCA team, who did a great job organising the event. These guys are the real power behind Steve Hodgson and they really make the PCA a fantastic organisation for its members.
Dry Rot.