It's Your Region
From the slopes of Royston to the gardens of Swindon, from Highbury to Banbury, from capital to county - this is Home Counties North West.
Pictured above is the Home Counties Conference at The Ethical Society Conway Hall, planned and coordinated by HCNW - a remarkable debate - filmed and online for you to view anytime. We’re not only active in London. HCNW looked at where its Members are and has got around the Region with a range of interesting events open to all...
Connect, learn, engage, innovate, lead and inspire.
It's your Region and everyone's welcome.
Make HCNW Part of Your Network
The Regions are about the people in CIBSE - they add a personality - and there's a warm welcome at our events. The Regions are about getting connected, directly and authentically, and everyone can benefit including the general public.
Some contemporary research shows that the best results are gained simply through our approaches to helping others - collaboration - rather than choosing qualities and selecting team members. So we make our events as open as possible.
You don't need to be an expert. Sometimes the even most basic questions turn up some fundamental issues, sometimes shared but not ventured by others. As our technological solutions and the way we manage them become ever more complex, CIBSE Regions with a broad spectrum of experience and specialisms become successful as diverse, engaged communities of practice in CIBSE. The Regions are all about people - and collaboration.
"...CIBSE Regions are an important resource for all Members; they provide an opportunity for engineers from differing working environments to widen their social network and contacts. In my own case, HCNW Region allowed my first real interaction with other engineers, outside from University. If I hadn't engaged with my CIBSE Region, the influences upon my professional development would undoubtedly have been less powerful and meaningful, not as diverse."
Jack Wardale, HCNW Committee Member and YEN Liaison
Regions and Your Career
Networking and maintaining links with colleagues in your Region can help you find sponsors and informal mentors for your CIBSE Membership applications. Your Region's a community, where you can establish career-long professional relationships too - to broaden your connections over the long term, not just where you're working right now.
"...The Regions, for me, give a personal and approachable feel to CIBSE as a whole. Before attending my first HCNW event, in truth I understood little of the influence CIBSE has - in both environmental and societal terms. By localising CIBSE as Regions, individual Members are more involved. They get their voice heard, and they can entrain like-minded people along the way."
Jack Wardale, HCNW Committee Member and YEN Liaison
And regional events engage with the wider public. HCNW innovated with two community events, Letchworth Garden City and Berkhamstead, which brought the art, craft and science of building services engineering directly to the wider public, and agreed by all made it more accessible and understood.
Imagine the collected years of experience in the room at a regional event, and the objective view of the wider public too - that's why HCNW and other Region volunteers go to so much trouble with these events - it's to share that knowledge, and maintain its continuity in the community.
Everyone's welcome. In another innovation, HCNW was the first CIBSE Region to run a full-spectrum inclusivity event, developing the idea further in 2015. The demography and cohesion of our mixed audience, usually including the general public too, continues to broaden.
Great Talks and Debate
HCNW specialises in regional debate - fiery maybe, but about the BIG picture and the things that will matter - and has been privileged to secure some inspiring and out-of-the-ordinary speakers.
Our topics have often been ahead of the conference circuit - Cyber-security (2015), Big Data (2015), Energy and Behavioural Change (2013), Disaster Recovery (2016), Skills Debate (2016); Professionals and their Societal Purpose (2015), the HCNW Debate on Sustainability (2015), Revisiting Climate Change (2016), Electromagnetic Risks (2016), Peak Oil the Economy and Energy Return on Energy Invested (2005), Making a Career of It (2015, 2016), the Recuiter's Perspective (2016), Diversity and Inclusivity (2013, 2015).
Surveys indicate that being one step ahead is exactly what members in the Region want and HCNW is often asked what topics we're looking at for future events.
Our Connections - Great Visits
We use our wide range of connections - above and below ground - to get you into places you wouldn't normally see...Thanks - Thames Water, Sambrooks, Cogenco, Biogen and Westmill Co-operative.
We also have great connections with IET Surrey, IET Buckinghamshire, our Home Counties neighbours and many other CIBSE Regions, WiBSE, SLL, SoPHE, CIBSE-FM, CIBSE Fellows, CIBSE CHP&DH, the Energy Institute, Subterranea Britannica, BSRIA, BES, and two Transition Towns
Get Connected
People often tell how they wished they'd known about one of our events. Some also meet new friends through the Region. So watch for the emails from CIBSE and visit our events pages regularly.
We're a network, not a closed chatroom - we're just like your connected networks. Why not follow what we're talking about in our network with like-minded colleagues and just interested friends in the general public?
Benefits to You
- Share your ideas on best practice with welcoming colleagues - your Region belongs to you just as much as you belong in a CIBSE Region;
- Expert speakers and peers help broaden your horizons and help you keep pace with a rapidly-changing world;
- HCNW often moves quickly to break new ground before it gets to the bigger conferences and onto the regular agenda: issues like Resource Depletion, Cyber-security, Big Data, Future Skills, Energy and Behavioural Change, the Future of Institutions;
- Gain new knowledge and skills to help you work smarter, to visualise and optimise solutions;
- Hear about practical experience to bridge the gap between science and craft;
- Debate the wider context: legal issues, health & safety, maintenance and the environment - take a wider societal view;
- See whether something new survives the furnace of peer review before you decide;
- Career benefits - insight, soft skills and networking - even find informal advice on bringing out the very best in your CIBSE application;
- Use your CIBSE Region to make human connections that last well beyond a job role, a company or even a part of a country - find informal mentors and in many cases, friends.
- Connect with the general public, understand their perspective as end-users or just taking a different perspective on the building industry and wider society.
- With so many pressures in the modern professions, every now and again CIBSE HCNW puts on a special private evening, usually revolving around work-life balance, collaboration and human relationships - often with quite remarkable outcomes in terms of the cohesion in our community of practice.
- Belong, be part of a community that so often seems to be one step ahead.
Regional Heritage
And in addition, our volunteers organise the celebrated HCNW Prizes; also minor clothing items as a way of thanking our excellent speakers, and if you purchase one at a reasonable price, to help you identify with your CIBSE Region.
Venues in London
Members requested a regular London venue in our surveys - so we usually meet in Pushkin House, Holborn - a charitable trust - generally on the second Thursday each month.
We have another friendly venue and our caterer, Linden House is another charitable trust in Hammersmith, for our special occasions.
...and in the Counties
We have new venues in Milton Keynes, Gerrards Cross, Sandy, Winnersh, Berkhamstead, and more. We even engage with community groups about the art and science of building services engineering...
Why not volunteer ?
CIBSE Regions always look out for volunteers who can bring fresh ideas. Contact us through [email protected]
"...My involvement with HCNW began during my first year at University. Having relocated to London from Merseyside, the city can be quite a daunting place to forge a new career. So I decided to attend a HCNW event - wholly unaware of what to expect. I was pleased to find a group of people that were helpful, informative and friendly. This immediately gave me the confidence and desire to get more involved with the Region."
Jack Wardale, HCNW Committee Member and YEN Liaison