Inside the Insider Awards
Despite the torrential rain, the Insider Property Industry Awards Yorkshire 2018 were a huge success with professionals from the property industry gathering to celebrate all things property in the Yorkshire Region. This awards ceremony is revered as the must-attend event of the industry with over 700 representatives from all businesses that are shaping and creating the Yorkshire skylines.
Whilst looking around the room, I was pleased to see the increasing number of female faces amongst the sea of black ties. Having worked in the construction industry for nearly 20 years it brought home to me how much the industry has changed over those years to be a more inclusive and diverse industry – a stark contrast from the old perception of a male dominated career, tarnished by male builders wolf-whistling from scaffolding at women passing by. Now that is definitely a thing of the past!
It also got me to thinking about how much money there was in that room – how much did all those attendees earn collectively – and how vast the property industry is in terms of an economic contributor. Whilst we can all read the GDP figures and see the national construction contribution, it’s not until you actually stop and consider all the businesses involved in the design, development, funding and construction of projects within the Yorkshire region that you fully appreciate just how big of an animal this industry is.
Despite the awards being about celebrating the Yorkshire region, I felt that this year there was a definite lean towards Leeds. Whereas in previous years there has been a big representation of projects from South Yorkshire (with the likes of Factory 2050, iPort Doncaster and Kelham Island) this year there appeared to be a distinct whitewash by Leeds based projects. Could this be proof that Leeds’ really is the Capital of the North or is it just a regional ebb and flow… that is surely a debate for another blog!
Looking at the shortlist before the presentations, one could be fooled into guessing who might be scooping the award, but this year there were some unexpected winners with some of the smaller, but none less important, projects and companies in the region receiving their just recognition.
On what was a celebration of the entire Property Industry in Yorkshire, it was great to see the camaraderie of congratulations from not just fellow peers, but also direct competitors, all working together and supporting each other to make Yorkshire great!
And of course Curtins winning the Consultancy Firm of the Year was the cherry on the cake!