RIBA ‘disappointed’ that poor promotion left firms out of UKTI’s Olympic business summits

Leading architects say they have missed out on the chance to be part of Olympic networking events to promote British construction because the programme has been poorly promoted.

Practices including Make and DSDHA, which designed buildings in the Olympic Park, admitted they knew nothing about the programme, which was organised by the UKTI.

RIBA president Angela Brady, who is hosting a talk on Future Cities, said she was disappointed that the events, which have now closed for registration, were not better advertised.

Prime minister David Cameron wants Britain to win billions of pounds’ worth of contracts while political and business leaders from across the globe are in Britain for the Games.

A series of 20 summits will take place at Lancaster House in central London. Architects including Richard Rogers, Mike Taylor from Hopkins and Spencer de Grey from Foster & Partners will be speaking. But most architects approached by BD knew nothing about the events.

Ken Shuttleworth, whose practice Make designed the handball arena, said: “We’ve not been invited to any major UKTI Olympic networking events but we do keep our eyes peeled. It wasn’t on the UKTI website last time we looked… but is now.”

Deborah Saunt, of DSDHA which designed housing in the Athletes’ Village, said she would have liked the chance to mix with clients from emerging markets and show that Olympic architects were not “one-trick ponies”.

“It’s definitely a missed opportunity,” she said.

Ministers have drawn up a hit list of 50 major projects including the Rio and Sochi Olympics, the next two World Cups, seven new cities in the Delhi-Mumbai corridor, four cities in Taiwan, a string of hospitals in Kuwait and South Africa and the reconstruction of Libya.

Entire days of the summit will be devoted to China and Brazil, the previous and next Olympic hosts which are two of the most important emerging markets.

John Lyall, who worked on four projects in the Olympic Park, said: “This is the first I’ve heard of these events. It would be useful to meet these people as long as it’s not a scrum.”

Will Alsop said the people who had been invited didn’t need help with overseas networking as they already had work abroad.

“They have the well-established, older generation but the generation below me are not invited at all,” he said.
Meanwhile, Brady vowed to open up a media briefing she is hosting at Portland Place to architects and clients.

The UKTI refused to explain how the guest list was drawn up.