Future leaders is a programme of essential training seminars for up-and-coming architects who aspire to drive the directionof the profession.

COMING TO THE FORE 17 MAY

2pm-6pm66 Portland Place, W1

FUTURE LEADERS 2018 LEARNING TO LEAD 22 MARCH COMING TO THE FORE 17 MAYBUSINESS & INNOVATION 12 JULY

Architecture.com/FutureLeaders2018@RIBA #futureleaders

INTRODUCTION

Whereas the first 2018 Future Leaders event, ‘Learning to Lead’, highlighted the principles behind leadership, with this second event there is an emphasis on the acquisition of soft skills. The focus is on how an individual can set about developing their own profile, emphasising how essential effective communication is to leadership.From the day that you enter practice, you are confronted with the reality that architecture is as much about communication as design. How much more of our time is spent on email and delivering documentation than design work? This only intensifies once you are in a management position with more time spent in face-to-face meetings, on the phone and at external events. Having highly talented staff, who are also personable, eloquent and persuasive, has never been so critical to practice. Today there will be a great deal of emphasis put on profile building or personal branding. This is because establishing yourself as a practitioner is not just about talking to those immediately around you in your design team or to an immediate client group, it is about reaching out to an extensive network of professionals. This can be done remotely via social media, but is even more effective and rewarding in person.

The RIBA offers many opportunities for this at both the regional and national level through its branches and expert advisory groups. My own engagement with the RIBA started as a member of the Large Practice Group in 2011. One of the hardest qualities to grasp is ‘listening’, being able to assimilate differing views while being prepared to have an opinion. I had sat on the sidelines of the RIBA for many years, with the adage ‘What do they do for me?’ or ‘Why would they be interested in my views?’. Stepping forward requires confidence and being prepared to stretch yourself; it is continuous learning that drives us forward and keeps us engaged. They say success lies just outside our comfort zone, so why not give it a try? It is essential for the learning and development of individual architects that they nurture their written and verbal presentation skills. Moreover, it is important for the quality of the built environment, as a whole, and the future of the profession that architects continue to engage and be articulate in putting their views across – that they maintain a profile in public life.Caroline Buckingham RIBA Vice President and Profession

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FUTURE LEADERS: COMING TO THE FORE

How do you make the shift away from being entirely project focused to becoming a front person? ‘Coming to the Fore’, the second event in the Future Leaders series, highlights how you can go about developing your own personal brand and influence – both inside and outside practice.

Emphasis is given to communication skills that provide the essential leg up to leaders, marking them out from their peers: demonstrating how engaging others can prove as key for the successful steering of internal teams as for external liaison and winning work. The afternoon’s programme encompasses online communication and in-person presentation techniques, as well as the importance of understanding your audience.

An interactive workshop emphasises the true impact on practice of good communication by highlighting how writing can be employed as a tool for winning clients.

OBJECTIVES OF THE DAY

• Understanding the importance of personal brand and reputation. • How to set about building your profile through social media, events, education and

professional activities. • Getting noticed on digital – how to develop the right sort of platform and content

for digital publication and dissemination. • Knowing your audience. • Pitching it right in terms of tone and format. • The essential characteristics of engaging communication. • Successful presentation techniques.

Join the conversation by following @RIBA and using #futureleaders

FUTURE LEADERS: COMING TO THE FORE

PROGRAMME OF THE AFTERNOON

1.30 pm Registration and coffee

2.00 pm Welcome Caroline Buckingham, RIBA VP Practice and Profession 2.10 pm Keynote Personal branding: what, why and how Jennifer Holloway, personal brand expert and bestselling author 2.45 pm Getting noticed online Marcus Fairs, founder and Editor-in-Chief of Dezeen

3.10 pm Q&A

3.15 pm Coffee Break

3.45 pm How to write to win clients Juliette Mitchell, founder of Architypal

4.35 pm Changeover/Comfort Break

4.50 pm Presenting with purpose Jane Briginshaw, Director, Design England

5.15 pm Communicating with insight: audience and social media trends Ibrahim Ibrahim, Managing Director, Portland

5.40 pm Q&A

5.50 pm Summing Up

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PERSONAL BRANDING: WHAT, WHY AND HOW

Using your personal brand to get and stay on people’s radars, whether they’re internal colleagues or external clients, is an important part of being effective.Jennifer Holloway

Why are reputation and influence so important? Acquiring the necessary experience and knowledge are essential for establishing yourself, but you can only start to reap the rewards of your abilities and talent once these attributes are recognised by others. Your personal brand can help you achieve that.

A personal brand is not something you make up to suit your audience, but rather a matter of honing and highlighting existing qualities. This authenticity is integral to who you are and the way you appear to others. Jennifer Holloway best sums it up by quoting Jeff Bezos, founder of Amazon: ‘Your brand is what people say about you when you’re not in the room.’

A lot of people are uncomfortable with the notion of profile building as they equate it with self-promotion. However, as Jennifer explains it, it’s more about getting the recognition you deserve by sharing not only your credibility, but also some insight into the person behind it.

To distil your brand, Jennifer recommends, ‘spending time thinking about who you are and what makes you tick, collecting together the basic ingredients of your brand – your values, drivers, strengths, etc. Then consider which of those ingredients resonate most strongly with you and put those at the centre of your brand. It’s adding that human side that provides you with the means to differentiate yourself as an individual to colleagues, peers and a wider network of contacts. Then aim to subtly convey that through every interaction – both in person and online.’

Jennifer Holloway spent 15 years in the corporate world, working in PR and dealing with the media, before launching her own company in 2008. She now delivers personal brand workshops and seminars, as well as one-to-one coaching, to clients across the UK and Europe, including Santander, Vodafone, RBS and Bupa. In the architecture and engineering space her clients include: Foster + Partners, Atkins, BAE Systems and Sir Robert McAlpine. She is also the bestselling author of Amazon’s #1 book on the subject: Personal Branding for Brits.

GETTING NOTICED ONLINE

Online thought leadership and design presence are now touted as one of the main routes to success in practice. A new generation of clients are relying less on personal contacts and looking to the Internet as the authority, sourcing talent based on digital visibility.

What does it take to develop an online presence for your projects and your ideas? What are the essential moves to getting noticed by the right editor on a prestigious international design platform? How might you get started by developing your profile via social media, events and the writing of short content?

Moreover, what sets a contributor apart and makes an editor want to engage with a particular individual and their work? How can you submit the right project or ideas with the requisite hook to editors? What is the most compelling way to pitch and what are the most engaging types of images to prepare or commission?

Marcus Fairs is founder and Editor-in-Chief of Dezeen. He is the first digital journalist to be awarded an Honorary Fellowship of the RIBA. A furniture design graduate, Marcus began his journalism career writing for Building Design and later for Building, where he became Deputy Editor. In 2003, he established Icon, which he edited until 2006, when he left to launch Dezeen in November 2006. Dezeen grew rapidly from inception to become one of the most influential design websites worldwide with over two million unique visitors every month.@marcusfairs @dezeen

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PRESENTING WITH PURPOSE

Talking in public to groups – however small or large – is a defining feature of leadership. Whether it is stepping up to take on a significant client presentation or championing a project internally among colleagues, all types of speaking requires putting yourself forward and taking the necessary lead. Placing yourself under the glare of the spotlight, for all but the most natural of performers, can be a frightening and dispiriting experience. It requires courage, skill and constant practice. Architects speak to many audiences and you need to tailor your style and message to each one. How can you take the first crucial steps to speaking in public? How can you speak engagingly and develop a speaking style which is authentic and that you are entirely at ease with? Jane Briginshaw is Director of Design England, providing training, consulting, advocacy and design review services to industry, local authorities, government agencies and academia. The Chair of the Design Review Panel at Design South East, she has significant experience as a client and in the profession. She has previously held the positions of: Head of Design and Sustainability at the Homes & Community Agency and Head of Design at the UK Department for Education; in addition to working in practice for 15 years. She is also the founder of Geekspeak an initiative to provide women in the construction industry with the skills and encouragement to speak in public.@Jane9B9

HOW TO WRITE TO WIN CLIENTS

Writing engagingly about your work is one of the best ways to win clients, attract attention and build your reputation. But how do you turn what you do into a compelling story and take people along for the ride? In this interactive session, Juliette Mitchell will get you thinking about what works and what doesn’t. She’ll give you new ways to put your case across, draw out stories and hit upon the right words to connect with potential clients.

Every piece of writing is a chance to be different, to get noticed, and to sell yourself and your ideas. Juliette will equip you with strategies for when you’re back at your desk and in need of inspiration. She’ll show you how to take the stress out of the blank page. And she’ll help you get your words flowing faster, working harder and winning clients.

Juliette Mitchell is a writer and editor with a particular interest in architecture. She worked for many years at Penguin Books, before setting up architypal.co.uk, helping architects write about what they do. She runs CPD workshops and provides a writing consultancy service, working with architects on web copy, award submissions, bids – and anything else they have to write. @architypal

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COMMUNICATING WITH INSIGHT: AUDIENCE AND SOCIAL MEDIA TRENDS

Communication starts and ends with the target audience. It is determined by who the audience are and the sector in which they operate, if they are clients. This influences how and what is said and the choice of media.

In the last decade or so, there has been a seismic shift in communication and audiences’ expectations with the move to digital and social media. There is no area that understands the command of audience more than retail and brand consultancy, which is wholly focused on consumers and their shifting lifestyle choices.

What are the emerging communication trends among leading brands and on social media. What should we be paying attention to and what is to become increasingly less important?

Ibrahim Ibrahim is Managing Director of Portland Design, a retail and design brand consultancy based in London and Dubai. Having originally graduated as an aeronautical engineer, he studied as a post-graduate at the Royal College of Art and Imperial College, London. During his 26 years in design consultancy, he has worked with a wide range of clients globally. Ibrahim has a deep interest in audience, understanding consumers’ relationships with brands and their interaction with branded physical and digital environments. He has a particular passion for exploring the future of consumerism and social media and how they will affect wider society and relationships between people.@PortlandDesign

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