TWO MEETINGS A YEAR
CEEC holds a general assembly bi-annually in various cities in Europe, where the many issues concerning the construction economist are debated and a number of projects promoted.
Two times a year General Assembly.
Conference on Friday.
Visiting an interesting project in another country.
Updates on the projects where CEEC is involved in.
Get together with colleagues from other countries in an informal setting.
On 1 and 2 September 2022 UNTEC, France organizes their 50 years anniversary congress in La Rochelle, France. CEEC will combine its General Assembly with this event,
REVIEW GENERAL ASSEMBLY BERN MAY 2022
At the 85th General Assembly on Saturday 14 May in Bern, Steven Thompson (UK) was re-elected as Vice President. Mary Flynn (Ireland) was elected as General Secretary because Creon Swaghoven stepped down as General Secretary after five 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 issues such as the ICEC World Congress to be held in Rotterdam, PAQS Singapore, and the 50 years anniversary congress of UNTEC were discussed.
INTRODUCTION MARY FLYNN, NEW GENERAL SECRETARY CEEC
In Bern at the General Assembly, Mary Flynn was elected General Secretary of CEEC. Mary is a delegate for the Society of Chartered Surveyors Ireland and works for the Dublin City Council, Quantity Surveyors Division. She is the first female secretary of CEEC and for the first time since the formation, CEEC now has a female president and a female general secretary.
Mary Flynn (FSCSI FRICS MAPM MSc aBIMM 5DBIM QS) has worked in the AEC industry for over 30 years in Ireland & the UK. She joined Dublin City Council Quantity Surveying Division in 2016 having previously come from a private sector and commercial sector background. Mary is co-founder of the Public BIM Group comprising of the major public bodies collaborating on common interests such as BIM, Public Works Contracts, and Digital transformations. She sits on the SCSI QS BIM Working Group focusing on the development and use of 5D BIM amongst the Quantity Surveying profession. She also sits on the ICMS Working Group and is actively involved as APC Assessor/Chair for the SCSI.
Mary is a non-executive director on the board of Construction IT Alliance and regularly contributes at conferences as a speaker both at home & abroad on BIM & the QS, Public BIM and BIM & Smart Cities. She is passionate about the use of Data for the Public Good through its collection, harvesting, mining and analytics. She guest lecturers with various Colleges, having previously lectured for a number of years part-time in TUDublin. Mary also sits on the Judging Panel for the Irish Construction Excellence Awards. She also acts as BIM advisor to the Construction Sector Group (CSG).
MEETING BERN MAY 2022
From Thursday evening 12 until Saturday 14 May the delegates of CEEC met up in Bern, Switzerland. Besides workshops, presentations, a site visit and the General Assembly, the delegates of CEEC had plenty of time to meet up with each other and enjoy the beauty and good life of Bern.
On Thursday evening the attendees enjoyed a n informal dinner where former delegate of Switzerland, Martin Wright was honoured as an honorary member of CEEC. Martin was delegate of CECC from 1986 until 2003 and was thanked for his involvement in CEEC and his efforts to put CEEC on the map in Switzerland and Europe.
On Friday, the progress of the CEEC working groups and the focus of CEEC for the next few years were discussed at a workshop. In Tallinn in Spring 2019, CEEC set up four working groups on different subjects (1. Communication, 2. European surveys on construction, 3. European Standards & Norms and 4. The role of construction economists in European countries). At the workshop in Bern, the working groups were evaluated and new projects were discussed. Among others: ICMS Mapping, Apartment Block Cost Model, Civil Work Cost Model and Further strenghtening of European relations were suggested as new projects. At the General Assembly on Saturday it was agreed that a proposal for the next meeting will be prepared by the Board on which projects to move forward with given the resources available.
After the workshop and lunch on Friday the attendees heard an interesting presentation by Ludovic Jean (delegate for UNTEC France) on ‘Calculation of Life Cycle Costs with Gestiona‘. As an introduction to a site visit of a conservation project in a building next door to the ‘Zytglogge’, one of Bern’s most well-known attractions, Michael von Allmen (responsible for the conservation of the Old City of Bern) gave a presentation on ‘How does the City of Bern secure a sustainable development of the UNESCO World Heritage site‘.
On Saturday, the General Assembly of CEEC took place.
NEXT MEETING
This year member organization UNTEC celebrates its 50 years anniversary since formation. Therefore, the next meeting of CEEC will be held in France so this special occasion can be celebrated with UNTEC during their annual congresson on Thursday 1 and Friday 2 September 2022. The venue for the 50 years anniversary congress of UNTEC and the next CEEC meeting is at Espace Encan in the French port city of La Rochelle.
So please mark 1 & 2 September on your calender and keep an eye on the website of CEEC and of UNTEC for further details..
PREVIOUS
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.
On Friday 11 October RICS organised the seminar ‘Strengthen the links across Europe’ during the bi-annual meeting of CEEC in Brussels. During this seminar the 2nd edition of the ICMS Standard was launched.
With a presentation from Alan Muse, Vice Chair of the ICMS Standards Setting Committee, followed by a panel discussion led by Justin Sullivan (CEEC/ ICMSC) with Alan Muse (RICS/ ICMSC), Ken Creighton (RICS/ ICMSC) and Gerry O’Sullivan (CEEC/ ICMS SSC), the 2nd edition of the ICMS Standard was officially launched in Europe. Before this launch Ilektra Papadaki (EC DG GROW Policy Officer – Sustainable construction and competitiveness) gave a very interesting presentation on ‘EU Construction in 2020 and beyond’. Also in the morning a proposed survey on the European construction industry was launced by Simon Rubinsohn (RICS Chief Economist) and Justin Sullivan (CEEC/ ICMSC).
After the lunch break the topic of the seminar was further explored by presentations on ‘The work of the European Organisation for Technical Assessment (EOTA)’ by Sergio Vazquez Jimenez (Secretary General – EOTA) and ‘The Irish Government and BIM: the next four years’ by Mary Flynn (SCSI Ireland). Both Sergio and Mary are also delegates of CEEC. The seminar ended with a site visit to the airport in Brussels.
All the presentations at the seminar were filmed and can be watched here.
On Saturday the delegates of CEEC met again in Brussels for the General Assembly. Here Tarmo Savolainen stepped down as President after his maximum term. Vice President Agnete Skytte was elected as new President for a term of two years. Agnete is the first woman, as well as the first Swiss delegate to lead the CEEC as President. Because of the election of Agnete Skytte as new President, the role of Vice President became vacant. The General Assembly decided to appoint Steven Thompson as a temporary Vice President until the next meeting in Spring 2020 where a new Vice President will be chosen. Delegates who are interested to take the seat as Vice President are asked to contact Creon Swaghoven (secretary@ceecorg.eu)
Also at the CEEC General Assembly in Brussels, Joe Martin and Martin Wright were honoured for all of the dedicated work they have both undertaken for CEEC over many years, in that both were awarded the title of honorary member.
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.
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.