2018 National Webinar Program
The ACA is delighted to announce the 2018 ACA Insight National Webinar Program. Put the dates in your diary now!
The ACA Insight National Webinar Program provides relevant and cost-effective CPD service to all members, wherever you are located.
28 February – Profitability and Growth Strategies for Architects
Robert Peake, Management for Design
How can architects position themselves for future growth and meet the challenges of increasing competition, technological changes, a changing workforce and potential ownership transitions?
The answer is that today’s success-minded firms have a concentrated focus on strong project, resource and financial management practices – the kind that can carry their long-term growth goals to fruition.
Rob Peake, founder and Director of Management for Design, is a strategic thinker with a proven ability to deliver specialist expertise in strategic direction, financial and business management, systems, operations, and business performance.
28 March – Social Media for Architects
Martyna Kulczyk, Lindy Johnson Creative Agent
Social media is an inexpensive, easy way to market your practice and engage directly with current and future clients. This webinar examines how architects can benefit from social media. Martyna will present the do’s and don’ts of social media, as well as practical tips on ensuring your digital presence helps your practice thrive.
Martyna is an Account Manager at Lindy Johnson Creative Agent, which specialises in marketing, PR and business development for Australian architects and designers. She is a professional writer and editor, with several years’ experience working in the creative industries. With a Bachelor of Journalism degree and studies in architecture and graphic design, Martyna has a deep interest in the marketability of the design industry.
2 May – ABCB Transformational Projects – Outcomes-focused Regulation
Neil Savery, ABCB
Australia has had a performance-based building code since 1996, but is it being optimised?
This webinar will provide an opportunity for participants to become familiar with the work the ABCB is conducting to raise awareness and improve understanding of how the performance-based National Construction Code (NCC) works in practice. It will discuss the tools the ABCB has and is developing to assist practitioners in their use of the NCC, with a focus on the increased use of performance initiatives to lift national productivity and improve building compliance.
Neil Savery is the Chief Executive Officer of the Australian Building Codes Board (ABCB), where he has been engaged in transforming the National Construction Code’s development, role of the ABCB and broader reform of the building regulatory system nationally.
30 May – Fees: The Lifeline to Ensure the Survival of your Practice
Bryan Miller, Practicing ARChitecture, Bryan Miller and Associates Architects
Architectural fees are often overlooked in the enthusiasm of practitioners to get on with the design. In reality, if you do not have a fee agreement in place before you start, your chances of getting paid are not very good! If there is no strategy in place to ensure accounts go out and the fee payments come in, it is more than likely you will go out of business.
This webinar explores the basics of architectural fees, fee agreements and the management of fee accounts. While there’s a number of standard forms of agreements, the anecdotal evidence is that most firms prefer their own fee documents with all the risks this entails.
Bryan Miller is a Life Fellow of the AIA and a founding member of ACA. He runs his own firm in Melbourne, which specialises in the provision of advice and assistance to other architects generally in the areas of practice management and contract administration. He also works extensively with the legal profession, providing expert reports and witness statements in relation to a variety of building disputes.
He was directly responsible (with Jon Clements and Peter Maddison) for the production of the current 2009 version of the AIA Client and Architect Agreement. Previously he was appointed on a task force by the Vic Chapter to create the 2000 version of the Short Form Client and Architect Agreement and the Short Form Architect and Consultant Agreement.
27 June – ACA National Salary Survey 2018
Dr Gill Matthewson, Monash University
What are current pay rates in the industry? What are the trends for 2018 and how have salaries changed? The National Salary Survey provides essential information on remuneration and salaries in the industry. Dr Gill Matthewson outlines the 2018 findings and discusses the implications for the industry.
Dr Gill Matthewson is a researcher, architect and educator, now based at Monash University in Melbourne, and is a co-founder of Parlour: women, equity, architecture. Gill is a national expert on the demographics of Australian architecture. Her PhD “Dimensions of Gender: women’s careers in the Australian architecture profession” (awarded by the University of Queensland in 2015) included significant analysis of the most up-to-date data on architects. Gill is widely published and her research forms a core of the advocacy undertaken by Parlour.
For the ACA, Gill has undertaken the analysis of the previous National Salary Surveys and is the author of the ACA Architects in Australia reports, which chart the professional profile of architects and the industry’s development in recent years through the 2001, 2006 and 2011 Censuses.
25 July – Australia’s Adoption of BIM: Getting up to Speed
Rebecca De Cicco, Digital Node
This webinar will discuss the realistic maturity of Australia as a nation in regard to BIM, both for buildings and infrastructure. Rebecca will critically dissect how Australia can quickly come up to speed with BIM processes, procedures and standards.
Rebecca De Cicco is Director of Digital Node Ltd / UK and Australia, a BIM consultancy with a focus on design, technology and innovation. She works globally to grow her business, and has worked on a number of policy-driven approaches with varied clients to deliver training and set a framework for BIM. She is also a founder of Women in BIM.
22 August – Talent Management and Staff Retention
Merilyn Speiser, Catalina Consultants
Using talent management techniques and succession planning is essential to develop and retain your people. In this webinar, Merilyn Speiser will cover the latest thinking around talent management and succession planning; helpful processes you can use to identify talent in your practice; the essential components of a talent development program; and how to move beyond an employee-focused approach to reciprocal development.
Merilyn Speiser is the Founder and Principal Consultant of Catalina Consultants, and has more than 20 years’ experience in the development of business strategies, leadership development, people and performance management and succession planning. In addition to running her business, Merilyn also develops and delivers leadership programs both in Australia and internationally, and she is a sought- after presenter, writer, mentor and coach.
19 September – Safety in Design Liberation
Jennekin Dicks, Management In Action
Why do we struggle so to consistently create records of Safety in Design on all of our projects across our practices? In this webinar, Jennekin Dicks will highlight the natural reasons for our resistance and the practical measures to overcome it. This will include a look at what truly sits within the boundary of our legislated duty, what sits outside it, where we are making a rod for our own backs in our own processes, and the simple steps we can take to create useful momentum in our safety conversation.
Jennekin Dicks is the owner of Brisbane-based consultancy Management in Action. As a past architect and consultant to design practices, Jennekin investigates the detail of our processes and helps to embed effective solutions. One such area is our response to Safety in Design legislation, which Jennekin has studied since its 2007 release in Queensland and then again for most states with the 2011 WHS National Bill. Based on this study of the legislation and an understanding of the knowledge and pressures within design practices, Jennekin then developed process and training solutions which she has regularly embedded within her client base over the past number of years.
If you would like to suggest further topics or speakers, do let us know. Simply email Katherine Ygosse, ACA webinar coordinator at webinars@aca.org.au.