MEETINGS

We met between Thursday 5- Saturday 7 October 2023 in the Hungarian capital of Budapest to spend Friday on discussing the subject of BIM and quantity take-off. Seminars were presented by a variety of speakers and in the afternoon we enjoyed a site visit to the Museum of Ethnography and the Hungarian House of Music.

The 88th GA meeting took place on the Saturday morning at which the regular business of CEEC was conducted including the election of Gyorgy Spanyi as the new President. Thanks were expressed to the outgoing President, Agnete Skyette and a gift was presented to her.

Thank you also to Gyorgy for organising and hosting the event.

Our most recent CEEC gathering took place from 15 to 17 June 2023 in London, UK, hosted by the RICS, this being a combined event with ICMS and various tech partners.

The conference was centred on the RICS HQ building in Parliament Square, Westminister, being the same location of the first meeting of CEEC which took place in June 1979 [see photo]. We were gathering therefore in the same month as the 44th anniversary of the formation of CEEC.

Several delegates gathered on the Thursday afternoon for an informal walking tour of Westminster led by the host, Steven Thompson and this was followed by an informal dinner at a traditional pub at St Katherine Dock (next to the Tower of London).

On Friday, there was a programme of technical seminars on the theme of ‘Next Steps – Digitising Construction’ by a series of experts in this field. The CEEC Trustees also held one of their regular gatherings during the day which was concluded by a drink’s reception on the roof terrace at RICS. Friday evening was our Gala dinner held in a wine bar near to St James’ Palace.

On Saturday morning we held the 87th CEEC General Assembly at RICS with the usual reports by the President and General Secretary – including reports of various visits made and planned to be made – all as documented below. There was also a forward look at the emerging plans for our next gathering in Budapest in October 2023. Lunch in Westminster Abbey concluded the event.

In summary, a very enjoyable and successful gathering and thanks are due to our RICS hosts for the programme and the team responsible for the management of the event.

The recent CEEC gathering from 31 August to 2 September 2022 in La Rochelle, was hosted by our French member, UNTEC, who also celebrated their 50th anniversary.

The theme of the conference was ‘Decarbonisation’. The Topic was discussed in the ‘Great Debate’ where several central peolple from the French Construction and real estate industries were represented. The CEEC President, Agnete Skytte, also held a brief presentation on the development of the CO2 rporting at European level.

CEEC held a workshop to discuss the development of the various project work. There was also the possibillity to visit the UNTEC exhibitor stands as well as to attend technical seminars arranged by UNTEC. The 86th CEEC General Assembly was also held. This included discussing the emerging plans for our next gathering in London on 15 – 17 June 2023 and deciding on the various projects to be taken forward. Our President, Agnete Skytte, and General Secretary, Mary Flynn, had the honour to present one of the UNTEC annual prizes – the European Prize.

A big thank you to UNTEC for organizing such a great and successful event.

At the 85 the General Assembly on Saturday 14th May in Bern, Steven Thompson (UK) was re-elected as Vice President. Many Flynn (Ireland) was elected as General Secretary because Creon Swaghoven stepped down as General Secretary after few years for personal reasons. Creon was thanked for his work, especially on the file server, documentation, standardization of documents and communication matters such as the website and the newsletter.

Also the accounts for the year 2021/2022 were approved and the Board was discharged at the General Assembly in Bern, Furthermore, the budget for 2022/2023 was approved and other issue such as the ICEC World Congress to be held in Rotterdam, PAQS Singapore, and the 50 years anniversary congress of UNTEC were discussed.

For the first time in more than one and a half years the delegates of CEEC met each other live. From Thursday 14 till Saturday 16 October they came together in the bustling city of Dublin, Ireland. Apart from a very interesting seminar, organised by the Society of Chartered Surveyors Ireland (SCSI) and the General Assembly of CEEC, the delegates especially enjoyed the reunion and catching up wih each other.

The Society of Chartered Surveyors Ireland (SCSI) organised a half day QS and Construction Conference on Friday 15 October in the Alex Hotel, Dublin in partnership with the CEEC and kindly supported by Alpha Wealth. Due to COVID-restrictions places to attend in person were limited, but profesionals could attend also virtually. At the conference presentations on very diverse subjects were given, from ‘ICMS3’ and ‘BIM’ to ‘Supply chain capacity as a risk to the industry’ and ‘5 year governement plans’. In the afternoon the delegates of CEEC visited a project in Dublin where 155 new residential units combined housing and apartments were being build. Afterwards, the reactions were very positive and participants were pleased with the content and organization of the day.

At the 84th General Assembly of CEEC Agnete Skytte was re-elected President. Furthermore ongoing issues and (new) projects such as establishing a new cost classification system in Hungary and a European Survey were discussed. Also feedback was given on the working groups. Apart from ‘Communication’ which is an ongoing process an the ‘Surveys on construction‘ in various European countries which are enrolled by RICS, the other two working groups consider their assignment completed. The results of the project on ‘European Standards & Norms‘ is already published on the website of CEEC and the results of the project on ‘The role of construction economists in European countries’ will be published soon.

Due to COVID-19, CEEC held its General Assembly again online. On Friday 7 May the delegates met via Zoom. György Spànyi from Hungary was re-elected as Vice President and Creon Swaghoven from The Netherlands was re-elected as General Secretary. The new statutes were agreed and voted on and the status of the current working groups was reported.

On Friday 23 October, CEEC held their second online General Assembly in 2020, with 23 delegates joining the meeting via Zoom. Subjects that were discussed included the relationships with organisations outside of Europe and the status of the various working groups (on promoting the role of the construction economist, Knowledge & Standards, Link professionals and Dashboard). Also, the online PAQS webinar on 27 August was reviewed. A number of CEEC delegates attended this virtual PAQS seminar on the subject of construction claims connected to the COVID-19 virus, with a particular focus on the contractual position on extension of time claims. The content was excellent and well received by the considerable number of people attending. PAQS delegates themselves also reported on the impact of the virus on construction activity in their member country and the prospects for recovery into 2021.

Because of COVID-19 the May meeting and General Assembly of CEEC which would have taken place in Bern, it needed to be cancelled. Instead an online General Assembly was held on Friday 15 May, which 26 delegates and their relatives attended from their home countries. Topics for this meeting were among others the election of a new Vice President and new members, budget and impact of COVID-19 on the functions of CEEC.

Discussed at the General Assembly was the progress of the working groups on the strategy for CEEC. On behalf of the group which is working on standards Erik Schulte Fischedick was happy to announce they had made good progress and the group hopes to present the results of their poject at the next meeting. The group which looks further into the role of a construction economist in different countries also makes good progress, György Spanyi reported to the General Assembly. They also hope to present their results in the near future. On the subject of the survey for CEEC, members of CEEC who have not yet responded are invited to provide feedback on the proposal sent out earlier this year. Please send your remarks to secretary@ceecorg.eu.

From Thursday 16th till Saturday the 18th of May the CEEC held their bi-annual meeting in Tallinn, Estonia. Organizing member RAKI from Finland and delegate Roode Liias from Estonia had set up a varied and up-to-date European programme.

At the conference on Friday morning several presentations were given. From ‘Construction Classification in Estonia’ by Roode Liias (Professor TalTech Tallinn) and ‘Digital transformation of the construction sector in Estonia through public sector leadership and innovation’ by Jaan Saar (Head of Digital Construction Estonian Ministry of Economic Affairs and Communications) to ‘Construction Procurement Reform in Ireland – how government has reacted to public cost overruns’ by Gerry O’Sullivan from Ireland and ‘Collaboration of BIM and cost management through a real project’ by Balazs Lengyel and Gyorgy Spanyi from Hungary. After the lunch the attendees visited the port of Tallinn were Hele-Mai Metsal (Head of Development Department, Port of Tallinn) gave an insight in the activities at this developing port. Also Anssi Auvinen (AINS Group) shared the latest information on the Helsinki-Tallinn-tunnel FinEstBayArea-project.

The delegates met again on Saturday for the General Assembly of CEEC. The attendees were welcomed by Tarmo Savolainen, president of CEEC with a special welcome for the new delegates Mary Flynn for the Society of Chartered Surveyors Ireland and Ludovic Jean for Untec in France and guest David Dooks, chairman of the Canadian Institute of Quantity Surveyors. After the report of the financies by general secretary Creon Swaghoven elections for the board took place. Agnete Skytte (Vice President) and Creon Swaghoven (General Secretary) were re-elected for a new term. The last gave then an review of the PAQS meeeting in november last year in Sydney which he attended together with Agnete Skytte.

After a break it was time for the main topic of the assembly: the strategy of CEEC. In 2018C EEC started a discussion about the stratey of CEEC for the next years. With a shared vision that ‘CEEC is the European knowledge hub for construction economists. CEEC links professionals in Europe to share relevant best practises, information and experience and promotes the profession of construction economist, common knowledge and international standards‘ the member organizations of CEEC were asked how they would like the vision to be realised. Based on this information from the members, the delegates set up working groups to investigate optional actions to meet the goals.

From Thursday 18th till Saturday 20th of October the CEEC was received by member organisation CAATEEB (Collegi d’Aparelladors, Arquitectes Tècnics i Enginyers d’Edificació de Barcelona). Besides the general assembly on Saturday and interesting presentations on BIM on Friday afternoon, the attendees visited an office building project and Camp Nou. Here they were informed on the way BIM is used at the enlargement of the stadion premises. A very special and interesting part of the program was the visit to La Sagrada Familia with an introduction on the construction of the towers of Gaudi’s masterpiece.

Saturday the 20th of October 2018 the General Assembly of CEEC took place in Barcelona. After a warm ‘thank you’ for CAATEEB for hosting the assembly, the delegates talked about the proposed update of the statutes and were informed about a new file server so documents can be easily exchanged. Main topic of the assembly, however, was the stategy for CEEC in the next years:
CEEC is the European knowledge hub for construction economists. CEEC links professionals in Europe to share relevant best practises, information and experience and promotes the profession of construction economist, common knowledge and international standards.
At the General Assembly György Spányi (CEO at Spanyi Partners) from Hungary was elected vice president. György takes over Vincent Arnou’s seat in the board.

The delegates of CEEC met eachother in Paris from Thursday 31st of May till Saturday 2nd of June. During the first two days the delegates could attend the Untec International Congress of Construction Economists 2018, where among others panel discussions were held on ICMS and BIM.

On Saturday 2nd of June 2018 the General Assembly of CEEC was held. In his welcome speech Tarmo Savolainen thanked France for hosting the assembly and warmly welcomed guests from Canada, Uganda and especially Germany. The main topics of the assembly were the future work of the CEEC, the current update of statutes and the financial status. Tarmo Savolainen led a workshop concerning the future work of the CEEC. Different groups made suggestions concerning which topics should be important to work with and how this work should be organized in the future. It was decided that the member organizations should be involved in this development to find out what they think are important topics. The statutes of the CEEC need modernization, so a new proposal from the board was presented by Agnete Skytte. This was discussed and met with general approval from the council. The suggested adaptions will be integrated before the next assembly in Barcelona. Creon Swaghoven presented the financial status. The finances are in a healthy state. The accounts for last year and the budget for the next year were approved by the council.

Sadly Vincent Arnou, delegate from Untec France, stated, that because of the current work load he has to resign his position as vice president of the board before the next general assembly in Barcelona. Tarmo Savolainen thanked him for all the hard work he had put into working for CEEC in the past years and pointed out that delegates of the CEEC interested in working on the board as vice president should please come forward before the next general assembly.

In October 2017 the CEEC meeting was organised in cooperation with NVBK in Rotterdam, The Netherlands. The meeting started on Friday with the seminar ‘Housing in Europe!’. After a very interesting presentation by Arjan Gooijer, architect Van Schagen Architects on renovating projects of existing apartment blocks in Rotterdam in the 1980s and nowadays, some of these projects were visited. In the afternoon delegates Gerry O’Sullivan and Tim de Jonge gave a presentation. The former presented the results of an international cost comparison of new-construction of affordable housing and the latter share some results of an interdisciplinary research project ‘Beyond the current’ about sustainable renovation measures and housing cost by a cooperation of the Utrecht University of Applied Sciences & the Delft University of Technology.

At the general assembly of CEEC on Saturday Tarmo Savolainen was re-elected as president and Vincent Arnou as vice-president. Furthermore Michel Coubes was granted honorary member of CEEC by the assembly. Other issues and projets that were discussed on Saturday were ‘New members -project’, the CEGA competition, the questionary of High Rise Buildings, the new version of the CEEC Office Cost Model, the project on Quantity Surveyor Competencies and the Warehouse Cost Model.

In May 2017 the delegates of CEEC met in Lille, France. At this meeting two new board members were elected. Agnete Skytte takes over Charles Mitchell’s seat as vice president of the board. Creon Swaghoven replaces Justin Sullivan as general secretary. Justin Sullivan was granted honorary member of CEEC.
Also the CEEC hosted the CEGA competition for students again this year. The competition is sponsored by Saint-Cobain. The winners were awarded at Lille conference. Roger Hayes from Ireland won the first prize with his work ‘Is the lean construction theory working? A study of contracting firms in Ireland.’ The second prize went to Abdullah Noorisedah from Finland on the subject ‘Supplier efficiency evaluation in construction industry’. The prizes are worth €1500 and €1000. CEEC congratulates the students on their great work.

Autumn 2016 we held the meeting in trendy capital of Denmark, Copenhagen with interesting presentations. We heard Circular Economics in the Construction Industry by John Summer, director MTHøjgaard. Sara Asmussen from Danish Building & Property Agency told us about Quantity surveying standards and methods in Denmark. Jonas Engberg, Sustainability Manager from IKEA told us Client values and priorities, including Circular Economics IKEA`s approach to circularity, and priorities regarding planned new (37.000 m2) store in central Copenhagen. Additionally we had pleasure to visit at Tivoli / central amusement park. Tivoli has make huge investments in optimizing hotel and infrastructure demands to meet the future client expectations.

In May 2016 we had a effective meeting at sunny Budapest. First we heard BIM and Cost Management of the New National Gallery by Gyorgy Spanyi. He told that The New National Gallery building is designed by internationally known Japanese architects SANAA (Louvre Lens, ROLEX Learning Center in Lausanne, Samaritaine Department Store renovation on Paris, etc.) and Spanyi Partners is providing BIM and cost management. Then we had an opportunity to visit the construction of the new campus of the Central European University (CEU). CEU has been founded by George Soros, Hungarian born philanthropy billionaire (a controversial hedge fund guru). In 25 years CEU became one of the most successful graduate school in Central Europe attracting students from all over the world. The new campus project designed by Dublin- based architectural firm O’Donnell & Tuomey. Building includes several buildings including the once hotel where the last CEEC Budapest meeting was held.