Protégés' Global Travel
To reward all our 2010 Protégé finalists we have sent them on a short working holiday to a number of our global office locations.
To share their experiences and find out what they got up to, please read on...
Protégé 2010 - Phoenix (USA)
Gareth & Dane
We had a Saturday morning set off from London after a few Friday night warm up drinks. After what turned out to be a long and very tiresome flight to Phoenix, via Denver, we arrived in Phoenix late in the day so went to a local bar just to chill out and acclimatise.
Our Sunday would turn out to be one of the best nights of the trip, or possibly of all time. After being a little apprehensive of what Phoenix would have to offer we were both keen to get out and see a few things. We headed across the city to Glendale to watch the Arizona Cardinals play the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in what proved to be an epic NFL encounter. Unfortunately, the Cardinals narrowly lost but having only had 5 hours to build an allegiance to them neither of us were particularly fussed. That night we decided to do what any young handsome English chaps should do whilst in the US for Halloween and hit the student town, Tempe. After some dinner, light ale-ing and shocking attempt at "chat" a quite delightful Little-bo-peep dressed waitress told us the places to go in town and we were off. Whilst playing some decisively one sided pool we were able to interact with some of local folk and sink a dozen or so long islands. Like respectable young lads setting an example to those pesky students we then went back to the motel and got and early night...kind of.
An early morning wake up and a fuzzy head meant that we wanted to lay low, so decided to go on a bit of a sightseeing trip around the Phoenix CBD. Downtown Phoenix was a disappointment to both of us as even at 5pm the city seemed more like a ghost town so we took the opportunity to have a walk around, see the sports stadiums and the Phoenix Convention Centre, one of RLB USA major projects.
The Tuesday was the first of our days in RLB's Phoenix office. We started the day with an introduction to some of the staff and a brief history as to how RLB had grown in America with Julian Anderson, the President of the US arm of RLB. Sarah, the Marketing Manager was then on hand to take us through how the US arm of the business markets itself and aims to go forward over the next few years before two members of the cost team, Joel and Jason, took us though a couple of processes used in the US business - namely Dim X and Qubit, as well as being able to talk us through their extensive knowledge of Phoenix...and of course Vegas
We were lucky enough to be able to accompany Kristen, the Business Development Co-ordinator, to a networking luncheon hosted by American Association for Economic Development where we also met up with Scott Macpherson, the Principle of the Cost Management team in Phoenix. The luncheon's guest speaker was Michael Crowe, the President of Arizona State University, whose speech was particularly informative for us looking at it from an outside perspective, especially for two recent graduates of the superior UK education system. Mr Crowe came across as quite a visionary who had high ambitions and was very dedicated to achieving the aspirations he has for the University, Phoenix and the whole of Arizona.
That evening was spent having a few drinks after work (some things are just universal!) and some dinner in the office local - a fairly quiet night.
We spent most of the Wednesday with John Jozwick, Principle in the Advisory Services team. John took us through the advisory roles and actions they carry out as well as a number of their recent projects from the office. John kindly arranged a site visit for us around the Phoenix Children's Hospital in the afternoon. This was originally a $430m project, but it had to be scaled back by $100m. It was still extremely impressive nonetheless and is the second largest children's hospital in the USA. The project consisted of the demolitions, a ten storey main tower, two new parking garages and a state of the art CHP unit which would save the hospital $900,000 in energy costs. The attention to detail in the hospital was stunning, everything that would help the children have as stress free a stay as possible was thought of with relaxing lighting and patterns to rooms as well several family areas and roof gardens for those who may have travelled from all over the country to be with their children. The hospital was also filled with state of the art technology. The operating theatres were considerably larger than required, with at least two hoist points to hold the equipment required for the most intricate of surgeries. This also applied to each of the ward rooms, where multiple electrical and gas feeds were installed in case of the event where twins may be admitted or if there was a failure in the original feeds. That evening we were advised to head back into downtown Phoenix to catch a basketball game as the Phoenix Suns were playing their arch rivals the San Antonio Spurs. Needless to say we witnessed another great game but also another home loss and as a result the atmosphere finished a little poorer than we had hoped.
Our final day in the Phoenix office started early as Scott was able to get us into a breakfast conference where one of Phoenix's prominent contractors, Holder Construction, gave a seminar on the uses and applications of Building Information Modelling. Although mesmerised by one of the hosts it was actually a particularly informative seminar which highlighted many benefits and uses of BIM pre, during and post construction on projects.
When we arrived back in the office Cathy, the Business Development Manager, took us further through how the US practices are coping in the current economic climate and how they are winning work to move forward. The office then took us both out to lunch which gave us a good opportunity to chat with other team members before heading back the office. That evening was the Phoenix Construction Industry's "must do" event, the DPR annual social evening, where DPR, one of Phoenix's largest contractors, hosted a barbecue and drinks for their clients, colleagues and just about anyone in the industry. The evening was a great opportunity for us to meet members from all aspect of the construction industry in Phoenix and a great warm up for our last night in Phoenix.
Feeling fairly tender on the Friday morning we caught an early flight to Los Angeles and then drove straight down to San Diego for a whistle stop tour and a night out before heading back up to LA on Saturday. The weekend was spent sightseeing in LA and catching Becks play for LA Galaxy in an MLS play-off game. This at last allowed us to see a home team victory as Becks provided two assists and lead the Galaxy to a 2-1 victory over Seattle.
We made the drive up to Las Vegas on the Monday morning where we spent the remaining four nights of our trip. As we were advised by almost everyone we spoke to, this was more than enough time spent in Vegas. A fun but expensive end to the trip which also allowed us to see the Hoover Dam, Grand Canyon and another of RLB's advisory service's projects, the "City Centre", which is an $8.6bn hotel and shopping development in the heart of the Vegas strip.
We both enjoyed our trip immensely and are both extremely appreciative for the opportunity RLB and the Protégé staff gave us to spend time in the USA. Of course as well as this our thanks goes to Julian and the RLB Phoenix team who allowed us to visit the office and took time out of their busy schedules to speak to us and made us feel particularly welcome. A special debt of gratitude goes to Scott who had us under his feet and following him around Phoenix for three days when he was particularly busy.
Protégé 2010 - Hong Kong and Shanghai (Asia)
Rupert, Conor & Edward - AKA English, Irish & Scottish
For our Protégé 2010 world trip we headed to the Far East visiting both the established Hong Kong market and the emerging Chinese Market in Shanghai.
Our group consisted of Edward, a QS with a Masters following a degree in Zoology with working experience in Australia; Rupert, a non cognate QS with a BSc in Mathematics & Philosophy who has just started his QS conversion, and Conor, a BS with a BSc Building Surveying and previous experience in the sector. Our different backgrounds and experience levels allowed us to view various areas of their working practices from different mindsets, ultimately enhancing our appreciation of the experience provided by RLB UK.
The chance to travel to Hong Kong, and see first hand the immense number of projects RLB is working on over there was incredible. The view from the peak over Hong Kong City and the Bay is a sight to behold, and one none of us will ever forget. Macau, an island similar to Hong Kong and an hour's hydrofoil boat ride away, is something of a Las Vegas of the East. Here RLB is currently working on a HK$14billion casino - the extravagance of a wave pool on the roof can add up! A night out in ‘Lan Kwai Fong' finished our Hong Kong trip; the Russian Ice Bar being a real highlight for all, and the morning after a real lowlight for some! Working practice in Hong Kong was a real eye opener; comp checkers, typists, and a dedicated team to simply measure concrete shows the scale of the operation.
Shanghai was another incredible experience. We barely got into the office on our first day when we were rushed out onto the site of the ‘Shanghai Tower' to meet the project PM, QS and Chinese Government representatives for the project. It was incredible, and a building we would all love to see when completed. It's in good company, next to the Jin Mao Tower and Shanghai World Financial Centre. Again the sheer scale of projects in the East makes anything in the UK pale in comparison. The World Expo in Shanghai was an incredible chance to see innovative technological and scientific advances. The only downside was the queues; when you're competing with 1.02million you can be stood around for a long time! Of course whilst in Shanghai we were not going to pass up the opportunity to do some touristy activities. A Chinese tea ceremony and gymnastic display provided some great relief from the hustle bustle of everyday life. When a green light means go and red light means go and honk your horn a simple walk to the train station can become a mission, especially when a sea of motorbikes are heading towards you.
There was no point travelling all the way to China without stopping off in Beijing with all its historic sites. The Forbidden City, the Temple of Heaven and Tiananmen Square were all great experiences which are lasting in all our memories, as is the taste of scorpion which we feasted on in the Hudong. At least we knew they were fresh as they were still alive on a stick when we were ordering. It did, however, make eating Pig Trotter, Chicken Feet, Roasted Whole Dove and Sea Cucumber seem relatively normal. The Great Wall was an experience to say the least; when you can only see 10m in front of you (we thought it could be seen it from space!) and it's raining, it takes the edge off. The Olympic sites were incredible but the CCTV building was unbelievable; forget about how tall you can make a building, seeing this in real life is a real jaw dropping experience for anyone interested in construction.
As a group we had an extraordinary experience. The places, the people, the culture, the sites, the architecture; it was like a gap year condensed into a month. Not to mention that the experience of different working practices and culture has improved all of us in a professional capacity, of course!
We would all recommend the Protégé experience to anyone starting off in this industry. We feel extremely privileged and cannot think of a better way in which you could combine personal and professional development in such a way; it's the perfect way to kick off your career.
To review what our Protégés of yesteryear have been up to overseas click here.