Last week was a big one for CREtech. Alongside our London media partner ING Media, we launched The Innovative Breakfast Club, a new quarterly event series in the UK.

Why? Because innovation in real estate is happening all the time and, while we love bringing you our big venue, large-scale London and New York events, the opportunity to put on these more boutique gatherings in-between does more than just bolster the frequency of our events. 

It gives us, and our audience, the time and opportunity to delve more deeply into some of the inspiring stories of innovation changing the real estate sector for the better. In the case of our first breakfast club, which saw us focussing on how we can design and develop better places and spaces for the children and young people who make up a massive 25% of society. All too often overlooked and misunderstood, it was a fascinating debut topic. More on that in a bit. 

Going back to our audience for a minute – which, of course, includes every single one of you reading this newsletter – and the importance of your involvement in everything we do. I cannot stress this enough, but you are crucial. And this is precisely why we called the new series The Innovative Breakfast Club rather than The Innovation Breakfast Club (both titles were on the table). The name needed to be active, not passive. A name that made clear these events are not set up as one-way conversations. A name that welcomed each and every person with an interest into this new, inclusive club. 

And this is a commitment that goes way beyond the people who are able to be in the room, mini croissant in hand, on the day.

If you attend one of the events, you are part of the Innovative Breakfast Club. Equally, if you read up about them afterwards (and you can find a full write-up of every one of the breakfasts over on my Substack Well-Placed with the first one due out this Thursday March 6th), you are part of the club. If you have any thoughts, feelings, questions, opinions on the series at all – even just off the back of reading about it here or seeing it mentioned on social media, you are part of the club. 

Something I have tried very hard to achieve since joining CREtech as Head of Content has been to make sure that everyone who follows what we do knows just how important a role they play when it comes to discussing and debating the future of the built world.

So, if you have any thoughts on our new series, we want to hear them. If you are keen to learn more about what our three fantastic speakers spoke about last week when it comes to shaping playful cities for children, do head over to Well-Placed where you can access the full write-up for free later this week. 

Either way, this piece would be devoid of its heart and soul without a proper shout-out for those aforementioned speakers. All equally brilliant and, I wouldn’t usually mention this but given we are now in the week of International Women’s Day I will make an exception, an all-female panel. 

We heard from Dinah Borat, director of ZCD Architects and a leading expert in child-friendly cities on how memories of childhood play can, and indeed should, better inform how we design cities for young people. 

Landsec’s community advocacy lead Kate Honey spoke about the importance of finding successful ways of communicating with young people and discussed a particular example where the developer showcased a new masterplan for Lewisham Town Centre in London via the video game Fortnite. This, she says, took conversations with the target demographic from 5 to 400. 

And Magali Thomson, head of placemaking at world renowned children’s hospital Great Ormond Street Hospital (GOSH) gave the room hope with the phrase “all children need to play” before explaining what she is working on with her team to create a play street outside the hospital to cater for even the most vulnerable children – some of whom have not left their beds for months – and their parents. 

Three incredible speakers, all of whom went on to actively engage with the room at an event which lifted the lid on a fascinating pocket of the sector. One which is not discussed in isolation as often as it should be given it applies to a quarter of the world’s population. 

So, what next? Well, The Innovative Breakfast Club is just getting going and whether you are able to make it to our next one in June (more details to follow), keen to check out the write-up of our debut event or just find yourself at the end of this newsletter thinking “that’s cool”, then you are officially part of the club. Welcome, and stay tuned for more. 

- Emily

Emily Wright

Head of Content

CREtech

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