I wanted to share some of my reflections with you as we approach the end of the year. 

Much of this year has been focused on fortifying the foundations of ACE and EIC and putting in place the building blocks for success in 2023 and beyond. I am pleased to see that throughout it all we continued to deliver for you, our members.  

In 2022 we warmly welcomed a number of new members to ACE and EIC including Voyante Ltd, Apex consulting engineers, NKY International, Krypton Structures, NMD Consulting Engineers, Wilson and Partner LLP, BREng Hull Ltd, G&G Design Services Ltd, TRP Consulting, Consilium, Nick Fenton, FG + Limited, London Structure Lab, Piledesigns Limited, J B Langley Associates Ltd, Pell Frischmann, Bureau Veritas, Ecus Ltd, Alphasense and Nichols Colton. 

We’ve shared our Blueprint which sets our ‘North Star’ for the next three years – a first for ACE in its recent history. Another first is our Building Inclusivity campaign which has united our members to explore ED&I issues in a way that’s not been done before by ACE and EIC. Our magazine and news resource Infrastructure Intelligence continued with its now  well-established Infrastructure Intelligence Live programme of webinars, including a hugely successful online social value conference in May. 

Behind the scenes, we’ve worked tirelessly on refreshing our membership, advocacy and policy structures with new approaches for both the ACE and the EIC. We’ve also spent time considering, based on your feedback, how we can best serve our members in 2023. 

The ACE Board endorsed annual plan sets out clear deliverables across the themes of the Blueprint for next 12 months. 

We’ve also spent time considering, based on your feedback, how we can best serve our members in 2023. Stephen Marcos Jones, ACE CEO

Highlights in the People space include a Career Pathways project to create an online hub to encourage more to consider careers in our industry, and a Skills Dynamics report outlining the challenges and opportunities our industry faces in this space.
  
On the theme of Social Value, we will aim to build a standard definition of social value with an engagement programme featuring members, public/private clients, and policymakers across Westminster and the devolved governments. The findings will feed into the planning for an ACE-led Social Value Conference in September 2023 which will showcase good practice from the sector. 

Across Excellence we launch a new event series aimed at bringing together ACE and EIC members with strategic partners and clients at our Meet the Buyer events which will be quarterly following their launch in March 2023. We will also promote the Value Toolkit’s implementation and use by ACE members.  

On Risk we have a programme of stakeholder engagement planned to explore and define contractual issues in the supply chain, including with insurance brokers and providers, the British Insurance Brokers Association (BIBA), clients such as Homes England, and devolved governments and policymakers in Westminster. We will also showcase member and project excellence to inspire others.  

For Innovation we will launch a campaign across ACE and EIC showcasing the innovation in delivery from our membership bases. Building on Future of Consultancy and Consultancy 4.0 campaigns in previous years, it will work closely with Infrastructure Intelligence to promote member excellence in this space. In March we will launch our first Hackathon bringing together industry experts from across the membership base and beyond (clients, other stakeholders) to progress innovative solutions to long-standing industry challenges.  

A targeted approach to advocacy will also be strong focus for next year. Our clear industry positions – which have recently been published in the ACE Manifesto – will help us to engage more decisively on your behalf with key decision-makers, no matter the political situation in 2023. 

I’d like to take this opportunity to thank you for your ongoing support in 2022, and to wish you and your loved ones a relaxing holiday period, and a happy and healthy new year. 

Stephen Marcos Jones is CEO of the Association for Consultancy and Engineering (ACE).