E-commerce conference reveals a hunger for change

ON 11 July, 150 industry professionals gathered in London for the Construction Products Association's first ever e-conference, 'E-commerce, the business imperative', where 12 speakers from companies such as Ove Arup, KPMG, Laing, Whitby Bird & Partners and Jarvis offered a mixture of practical advice, future-gazing and success stories in an attempt to unravel the mystery and jargon surrounding e-commerce and the Internet.

Opening the conference, CPA president Roy Harrison called for an end to 'the dot.com hype' and a new focus on how e-commerce can benefit traditional industries and business models. 'The real e-revolution is yet to come,' he commented, 'and it will be in industries such as ours that e-commerce provides the key to long-term competitive and commercial success.'

Bill Southwood of Ove Arup followed this with a warning. 'We haven't seen anything yet,' he claimed. 'This technology will get faster, more challenging and more difficult to integrate but in the long term we have no choice. As long as the technology remains relevant to business and customer needs we have a very exciting future ahead.'

The conference was organised by the CPA, in conjunction with the Building Centre Trust, following the Association's April survey which investigated attitudes towards e-commerce in the construction industry. This revealed an industry slow to change but confident that the Internet revolution will have a real impact on the future direction of the UK construction industry.