aspirATion Greater London group has arrived!
By Joshua Slingsby ACIAT, aspirATion Greater London Region Chair
It is official. aspirATion Greater London Region (GRL) has become active! Pop the champagne, drop the balloons - , GRL aspirATion has arrived, for students and recent graduates of Architectural Technology in the London area.
Its inaugural event on 24 November consisted of a guest lecture evening; the start of an annual series. Kindly hosted by London South Bank Universities Architectural Technology (AT) Department, it saw inspiring speakers, new technology tested and exciting discussions for the future.
The purpose behind the initiative and event was to create an initial platform for communication, to form a conduit of contact between aspirATion (aspiring future AT professionals) and the Institute.
As Chair for aspirATion London, the first priority highlighted was communication, to be able to talk to the members and understand what they need from the Institute and what aspirATion needs to be for them. For this to happen, the guest lecture series was formed to allow practising members to come and present their life and works to students, and to create an opportunity for aspiring members to talk and network with AT professionals.
A simple idea that became a successful evening, where students, alumni and academics from all four Accredited universities in London attended, creating a melting pot of London AT professionals. Not only was attendance physical but also virtual with a successful attempt to have live beam-backs to the Republic of Ireland and Channel Islands projected on to the wall of the lecture hall. This was a beta test for future events, to be able to offer inclusivitiy and involvement to the more remote members of the Institute.
The evening’s success must be put down to the inspiring speakers who graciously gave up their time, including James Banks, Membership Director, who gave a fantastic insight into membership progression and the routes members can take to achieve Chartered status. Greater London’s Regional Chair, Niall Healy MCIAT, gave an in depth talk of a technologist’s role within industry and project delivery with some great insight into his own work and achievements.
It was also an absolute honour to introduce our President-Elect Alex Naraian MCIAT, who spoke about his own career progression and increasing involvement within the Institute.
Following the inspiring and insightful words of the speakers there were some exciting discussions and certainly some inspiring ideas for what aspirATion could take on in the future.
Moving forward, aspirATion GRL is looking to expand and build on this first event, namely with a follow up guest lecture evening in the series. With a committee of limited numbers, GRL is looking for aspiring members who want to be involved and to take on responsibilities and roles within aspirATion and the wider AT community.
If you are a student member, Associate member/profile candidate of less than five years or Chartered/Technician member of less than three years who has the drive and passion for AT professionals then we will be soon advertising an event in early 2017 and I hope to see you there.