Post-show Survey Feedback

Really liked the workshops and the variety of topics covered + the networking and the venue although it was a bit hectic moving around outside of the main halls downstairs. Consider more representation from the 3rd sector e.g. REalliance, CRN, LCRN, CCN. Perhaps consider a stream of events considering the opportunity for decentralised infrastructure? How about a session taking a good look at new technology in development?          

Networking was very good.               

Best conference this year, for me personally. Great debate around a wide range of topic areas for reducing carbon in the future. Managed to identify a number of projects on the day. I plan to follow up with various parties after the conference.      

I was particularly impressed by the 'Guest Speakers'. The representatives from Los Angeles, Copenhagen and Nantes made excellent contributions, underpinned by practical examples which served to add value to my understanding of the subject.  I felt that Sir John Armitt's comments were of significance and certainly struck a cord with me. Leadership is vital to success.  The exhibition was a very useful addition to the day's proceedings.  The absence of and lack of participation of the major construction companies in the day's activities left much to be desired.     More advance 'headline' publicity about the Breakfast/Fringe Events would have been helpful.  Although a couple of major construction companies, Carillion and Vinci, were in attendance they represented the FM side of the construction industry and rather regrettably, not the new build/capital works side.

A very welcoming, very well organised and enjoyable day.    A good mix of seminars and presentations.                       

Smart Cities breakout session - very positive/interactive. Quality/scale of event very powerful. Gives me a positive feeling about direction of travel in Smart City space.    No dislikes - great job. Very good content and discussion        

The plenary sessions were very good especially the last one. I will suggest a summary of the different sessions are summarised by chairs in 5 minutes so that one can get an overview of the emerging issues from the different groups.            

Somehow you managed to make a packed programme feel relaxed, a valuable knack. Could be as most speakers were almost on a strange planet due to the Rio effect?  I have to say the double basement  venue with evil red lighting in the main auditorium  is pretty much as I would have procured my ideal purgatory were I the devil, however. The irony of being in such an environment was not lost on me...again, was this a general post Rio tristesse factor at play? I am sure some of the audience had recently spent time inside ..inside airports that is!   I did like the idea of video linking to other cities, but if this was in real time, to timing for such links needs to be considerate...again you winged it on the Rio jet lag having made many of the participants totally unaware of London time zone! This would not always be the case.   

Some great & unusually frank & honest speakers  with a great mix of speakers & attendees from the broader  international community.   I thought the opening plenary with the addresses of Stephen Norris, Richard Blakeway & Fiona Fletcher Smith were by far the poorest of the day. All soundbites and no real sense of belief or commitment from the three London speakers. What actually was London going to do by within 1,5, 10 years & is it measurable ? Too much woolly talk.  Steve Norris, the Conference Chair actually seemed uncomfortable with, & unconvinced of, the theme of the conference ie how do we create a low carbon environment & infrastructure?  I particularly enjoyed the Circular Economy Fringe sessions & the contributions of the Dutch speaker in the morning and Neil Grundon in the afternoon. The final plenary was superbly chaired & co-ordinated by Terri Wills with the video conference from the Mayor of LA & the subsequent speakers from Copenhagen & Nantes all creating a genuine sense of warmth, commitment and capacity to succeed. The accoustics in some of the meeting rooms were a bit poor & seated speakers meant they could  not be seen or heard!  Best conference I've attended in a while.  Good networking opportunities and would like to thank all staff in Seimens tops for they're general back and side stage handling of event.     Excellent. Congratulations to all involved in event organisation.            

Liked: Layout. Calibre of delegates/speakers. Number & professionalism of the attendants.  Disliked: Can't think of anything.          

Very good plenary speakers and guests.  Excellent content on the workshops!  Very well organised  Excellent professional networking opportunity!                       

I felt the mix of content, speakers and delegate was excellent. A good mix of property owners, enterprises, investors and sustainability professionals to have a good networking and discussions on the systemic changes we need within London's built environment. Would suggest more main theatre activity - especially panel discussions on key topics - the finance one in the morning was very good. An international perspective would be a good - lessons from New York, Sydney etc - to look beyond UK and how we compare to the rest of the world. 

High number of interesting delegates - Session/workshops were very interesting - it's a shame we had to choose from such good topic areas  - good location - easy to get to. Area for improvement - Tea/coffee at morning break should have been upstairs too.- Hot lunch went too quickly and there was not enough. I only got a couple of chicken wings.   - Website - on the programme on the website, delegates could not see information about the fringe events until just before the event   - Basic admin: survey email is clearly last year's and has not been updated (next event 21 June 2012 and a picture of Boris) - Opening plenary - keynote was late - why not re-jig the agenda so time was not lost?  - Base support team - very helpful and professional, but did not all the team knew the venue well enough.  - Not sure if this is possible - labels inside the lifts so that delegates knew what was on each floor - Accoustics in the workshops - difficult to hear the sessions/speakers  - Live streaming of the event for next year. To my knowledge, only the opening and closing plenaries were filmed.                         

I was only present for the afternoon plenary session, but the quality of speakers/panel was unequivocal.                  

The opening speeches from the GLA were disappointing. I would have hoped for something which communicated a strong vision and a strategic framework - like the Copenhagen presentation - framing the whole day in terms of the opportunities for business to bring this to life. Aside from this the event was excellent, with a good range of workshops, a good balance between thought leadership and more practical sessions, an impressive line-up of speakers and a large, high-calibre audience.The WSP energiser was good, and I liked the cartoon artists. Perhaps integrate more elements like this to liven things up and encourage interactivity.    Afternoon plenary felt quite long. Maybe a break would have been good?    Food and drink were very nice, although the Pimms ran out before some delegates could get any.        

Quality presentations from an impressive list of knowledgeable particpants.                     

The smaller workshop sessions were particularly effective. The practical focus of the conference was excellent.  Full timetable made the day really worthwhile.  Excellent energiser at the start of the final afternoon session (it had been a long day!)  High quality of speakers.  The hosts (particularly in the energy workshop sessions) were extremely good at stimulating discussion and managing timings of the session. I have very few criticisms.                  

Steve Norris was excellent chair. Fiona Fletcher Smith info was crucially important - would have liked to have had a press release or opportunity to obtain text.    Circular Economy session was excellent, packed with good speakers and broad discussion. Skanska fringe event was a non-event, just a lunch room.  Catering and AV excellent.  Sustainable non-domestice retrofit PM workshop pretty tedious and predictable, though excellent topic - no real detached perspective on situation. Closing plenary was a real boost to flagging hopes that any real progress will ever be made.  Links / presentations from other mayors' offices was inspiring, and the sense of a sea change and the beginnings of a mobilised campaign in Question Time was a sight for sore eyes.  Maybe, like Richard McCarthy said, we have to believe in it. I am desperately grateful for the inspiration, as I am a fully low-carbon trained architect.

Breakfast briefing sessions - particularly liked.  Morning plenary sessions - would have benefitted from some images/ slides, to liven them up.              

Overall I thought the event and the venue were excellent, although I was a bit lost when I first arrived as I was not sure where I was supposed to go with regards to fringe events.  I know there is a fine line as to Q & A time, but felt more time could have been given to this area in both the Plenary and workshop.           

The quality of the speakers and the practical nature of the break-out sessions.    The lunchtime sessions could be better run. Some of them were too informal, and needed some regular explaining of the format from the hosts as people tend to drop in and out of these sessions and it was not always clear what the format was.        

I only came pm. A colleague said the morning was good. It all looked pretty good to me. One thing you might like to explore in future years is the feeding of cities. Some 30 million meals per day are served in London alone. We tend to take it for granted.  Carolyn Steel is especially good on this. There's not much  green infrastructure on an empty stomach.   

All really good  keep up the good work.

Very good range of speakers. Good format. Could look more closely at the land allocation / urban footprint side of this debate - as opposed to the management of buildings/cities in use.  Bid opportunitites for eg IBM, Cisco, Siemens in assisting strategic decision-making - but need to drill into closer understanding of the planning and land development process.      

The dinner was excellent and Ken Livingstone was a humorous and erudite speaker.                  

Liked the excellent choice of panel discussions and breakout sessions. Also the international context with e.g. the contribution of Copenhagen, Amsterdam have been very good.            

Likes: Line-up of speakers, Andrew and Steve's great marshalling of the event. Need more optimistic speakers! Too much doom and gloom at the pace of getting projects approved. The reason why Scandinavia is so far ahead is because there's no complaining or blame-games from anyone involved, no-one cares whether participants are politicians or private sector - so everyone moves together, learns the same lessons, makes the same mistakes and enjoys the same results.    Let's see some concrete examples of individual projects in London (not endless stats), how they were managed etc. so London can learn and share more - together.        

I liked to the opportunity to hear a number of speakers on the topic of a Low Carbon London and covering a variety of aspects.  The catering was a bit disappointing - no tea when I arrived (admittedly a bit late at 0810) and the biscuits and tea/coffee ran out at morning tea (lunch went OK, but refreshing food was slow) and seemed to be available from the one point - although it was annouced that there multiple locations on multiple floors...   The lifts are the hotel were very slow, which meant lots of trotting up and down 3 flights of stairs (Plenary on lower ground, breakout on floor 1).                    

Liked: venue, pre-arrival & arrival organisation, opening plenary, but didn't rate the keynote address, Roland Aurich was excellent, great message & great delivery (no I don't work for Siemens!), retrofit housing workshops content and panelists were good, exhibition, food. Not so good: closing plenary, some breakout room speakers could have done with a mic, Charles Abel Smith was hard to hear in opening plenary.           

Quality and broad scope of presentations, great networking opportunity held in excellent venue.           

Great speakers, very well organised. It was very busy (which was good) but there didnt seem to be enough space in the networking areas for everyone.            

Excellent forward thinking exciting conference - in particular the speech by Siemens in the morning plenary session and the speech by IBM Guru Banavar and the video conference from the mayor of LA, Nantes. Excellent conference! you should be proud of yourselves! Lunch was poor ... not very important though .. a buffet lunch would have been great with a supply of coffee and water throughout the conference.    

The quality of the panels in the break out sessions was excellent  The text voting system was dynamic and stimulated debate. Great venue.

Likes: Broadening the agenda to include domestic retrofit; encouraging Local Authority attendance. Organisation support team very impressive. 

Plenary sessions were very good particularly the afternoon session with the international participants.  Venue was good , but congested between the exhibition areas downstairs.   food was mediocre and ran out too quickly.  But despite these niggles a triumph again and setting the benchmark for such events and moving the debate forward into practical actions  Keep the format it works well, but needs more circulation space if you are going to retain the networking opportunities.      

Lots of networking opportunties but a really structured day that kept everything moving really well. Lots of high profile attendees but still retained a really relaxed feel.  As an exhibitor I found the event to be really well organised and knew exactly where I needed to be, what to do and when. Lots of people on hand to help when needed.     

The event was excellent and extremely informative.  The only thing that let it down was the split nature of the venue and the catering and the splitting of catering across two levels.  This made networking difficult and meant that, for some, coffee and lunch had run out before we had time to get to them.  The narrow corridor behind the main lecture theatre also made networking difficult.  The exhibition was a good idea.                 

Thank you for an excellent event. Excellent - content - workshops - professional networking. Very well done to you and your team. We done for an excellent event! Very informative and professional, and an excellent way to meet significant people in the low carbon economy. 

Thank you  - what a great conference! 

Hi Andrew - Just thought I'd mention what a fantastic event Base London was yesterday and thank you on behalf of Carbon Credentials. 

Congrats on organising a fantastic event - great content, speakers and mix of delegates + I thoroughly enjoyed it. My fellow senior manager called it - a blinder of an event!             

Congrats on the latest BASE - that was a lot of organisation, a lot of people, and a good buzzy atmosphere of interaction going on. 

Congratulations on a very successful event.

I liked the small workshops with opportunity to have discussions on key topics; could have done with more structured opportunities for networking and sharing ideas on emerging challenges.  eg. rather than multiple panel discussions, an option for table based discussion groups.

The event was well attended and a good range of topics were covered in the presentations. In addition, the venue was also suitable.

Finance panel; what did they really debate on? Too much a soap box for business pitch  - Venue - quite disjointed - two floors, narrow corridors. Opportunity to 'miss' something.  - Good plenery speakers.  - Topics for breakout sessions relevent. Depended too much on quality of chair however (some good, some poor at moderating). Overall good, but more interaction with audience perhaps and a venue which allows better networking in one area.           

Plenary content excellent.  Workshops very good, if a little oversubscribed for some of the rooms.  Venue a bit chaotic logistically, particularly at lunch.             

Well organised however venue was big and people were spread a bit too much.  Food nice but sparse.             

Panel discussions in main conference theatre were excellent in the morning and afternoon. Steve Norris an excellent chair. Green Deal retrofit in housing very good discussion - large scale retrofit in afternoon was not great. Little synergy between speakers and two of the four presentations not relevant!  Understandably when people sponsor they need to get some acknowledgement but unsure some of this worked well. Networking element was great. 

Plenary sessions very good, workshops good, catering at lunch was a little random! Not sure spreading over two floors helped with the networkingas much if it had all been on one floor. Nothing further. 

Likes: the morning & afternoon workshops plus the morning opening plenary  Because so many attended the finger buffet was devoured in a very short time & the hotel struggled to replenish.

The break out sessions worked well.                

Like: Breakout sessions - very well put together, interesting subjects and speakers  Dislike: Lack of tea/ coffee points on the first floor.                      

Good - transport workshop and Bristol+Leeds city workshop, final plenary, Steve Norris and Copenhagen speaker excellent  Not so good - lack of lunch upstairs - ran out early (except chicken); LA video link; a few techy glitches in workshops. Liked interview with Tim O'Toole last year - did I miss interview with Isabel Dedring this year - if so did not see pre-publicity.  

The breakout sessions were very informative. The basement area was too crowded and difficult to get around.

Overall the event was excellent and in particular the workshop I attended by the BBP. The level of discussions was high and really focused on solutions. I disliked the  obvious sales pitches in the Open Plenary and Closting Plenary. It was great seeing the use of technology for travel, within workshop and conference call presentations. All very well set up.   

Some very useful workshops and good speakers. The opening sessions were the least useful, I felt as though the speakers had an agenda and they said little new, for me. Also I don't feel the event was catered properly, with food and drinks often running out - though what food was there was very good - there just wasn't enough of it!                       

Liked the networking opportunities. The venue and food were excellent.    

Liked the wide variety of topics up for discussion  Dissliked the hospitality arrangements - too cramped. Lots of great ideas were discussed during the event but how does the audience keep track of what is happening - is this an opportunity for BASE to host a exchange forum? More involvemt from the third sector - bottom up needs and views plus looking at how they can sell their capabilities.    

Very interesting programme with high-quality speakers.  Useful networking opportunity, also across from different sectors. The only low point was catering - stale sandwiches, hot food, tea / coffee ran out in three locations within the first five minutes of lunch and coffee breaks respectively.                       

I enjoyed the parallel session I attended but I also had interest in other sessions and was disappointed that there wasn't the option to attend them. I was surprised there was not more regarding management of London's future water supplies but then I was unable to attend the session on SMART Cities.         

Like: Quality of speakers, excellent opportunity to network  Dislike: Finger food (in particular the chicken wings) were not really appropriate. Food served in bowls would have been better, sound issues in the sessions (it was difficult to hear speakers if seated near the back).                    

+ Good conversations with other professionals.  -  Nothing truly inspirational, no break-through projects - why do you ask for dietary requirements, when you do not really take them into account anyways??? The vegan salad I got, after I pointed out that there was nothing for me to eat, did not even have a dressing and was just some leafs and tomatoes thrown into a bowl. The large portion did not compensate the poor food quality.            

Presentations were generally very good, including the workshops that I attended.    From my perspective, there was perhaps too much emphasis on the options that exist and how they could be funded, and les than I would have liked on the detail of achieving the objectives. More detail on the method of achieving the projects/objectives that were presented, would be useful.         

The seminar discussions were very good but difficult to hear the speakers and questions from floor, a microphone would have been beneficial. The plenary session  line up, inc international speakers, was good but it didn't deliver as much as it might due to format and structure. 

i only attended the Aldersgate event on the circular economy. This was very intersting and useful and i was glad that I attended.                      

Circular Economy Workshop was especially inspiring.  Choice of buffet food downstairs (without plates or cutlery) was perhaps not well thought through.          There needs to be something about joining everything up - I got the sense that there were a number of topics that were working in isolation.  

I though the breakout sessions were very good - I attended the circular economy session and the commercial retrofit sessions.                      

Catering. Promised coffees on the upper floors and there were none. As wheat intolerant and my colleague being a celiac it was incredibly important that we had gluten free food. After asking numerous staff members at lunch one of them produced some rolls with tomato and mozzarella, we checked 3 times that they were gluten free and he promised us they were. Fortunately we didn't trust him and asked to see the catering manager who kindly produced some gluten-free sandwiches. The staff were very close to putting my colleague in hospital, this is unacceptable service for such a pricey event where we had already noted our dietary requirements.  The lack of audio speakers with the projectors were severely disruptive to the breakout sessions and again a disgrace for a conference space of that size not to have the facilities to host the event properly.   Great to hear from the C40 case studies.   Ken Livingstone's speech was fantastic and I think Steve Norris' chairing of the whole day was superb - well managed, insightful and fun to listen to - well done!  I would like living breathing case studies of the C40 and others to be available in the same way that TED operates to aid collaboration and knowledge sharing.

Workshops were great, though frustrating not to be able to cut myself into 6 and be present at them all!  Opening Plenary had good energy - good choice of speakers.  Lunch was rather strange - good to be able to eat on the hoof, but mini sandwiches were more appropriate than chicken wings!!  As a not-for-profit we appreciated being included.  Interesting observation that not many architects attended. Given that they are designing many of the buildings discussed, they should be encouraged to be there.            

Like - Dabte around ideas and convey them into graphics.  Dislike - The room for different workshops were a  bit confusing.                        

I liked the content of the talks that I attended.  I liked the fact that there were a number of contacts from relevant organisations, which was great for networking.  I disliked the physical contraints fo the networking areas.  I disliked the split between floors.  I disliked the lack of guidance and instruction on when the luchtime workshops were taking place.  I disliked the catering - coffee was hard to get, the food at lunchtime ran out, plates and cups were scarce. A good event with an excellent vision and good networking. One I would certainly attend in future and recommend to contacts.      

The content of the presentations was thought provoking and the speakers were well informed and engaged the audience. One of the better events I have been to in the last couple of years    The venue was very cramped for the networking element. The food was a little disappointing too - it might have been better go for a straighforward sandwich option - some of the options (e.g. salmon) were difficult to eat without a knife and fork!  Hope to come back next year. 

Thought the venue worked well. Good catering.  Good mix of plenary and workshops. One of the workshops I attended was very overcrowded with many standing the whole time. The rooms were quite large and all the speakers spoke sitting down. For the mumblers amomg them it meant that they were not well heard. I suggest all speakers be asked to stand for presentations, particularly with no mikes, though I appreciate the Chair may have been aiming for a degree of informality. It was just too big for that. Informative day, including exhibitors.    Congratulations on the excellent turnout and general professionalism of the arrangements. Well done.            

Liked hearing about the range of initiatives. Though these were very much focussed on large scale which is understandable. It was frustrating to hear about all the continued barriers, red tape and lack of government support. Also hard to see how SME's can engage.  Thanks for offering SME's a ticket........very much appreciated. Venue was good though a bit airless downstairs       

Group discussions / questions and answer section in the breakout sessions specific to our industry focus. I was in the Non-domestic retrofit (both sessions) and found this to be fantastically informative. More of this would have been better, along with the breakout sessions being non-enclosed - i.e. with participants able to flit between or overhear different breakout sessions rather than decide on only one. In a more opun format this would be possible.  Less single central presentations, same ammount of central panel discussions (that was excellent) and more breakout panel Q&A inc txt/twitter Q&A to panel via moderator (there was none, only a walkaround mic which is intimidating for some). 

Opportunity to network with other delegates was excellent.  One of the seminar rooms that I attended was a bit overcrowded.            

Good size event with focussed attendees and not too much over selling. The workshop I attended in the morning Transport and Logistics had a good variety of speakers and had lively debate with Q&A. I was called away so unable to attend the pm session and dinner. Unfortuantely I was limited on time so unable to maximise the full offer of the conference but what I experienced worked well. Would be keen to see something in Birmingham which Andrew I know is considering       

Liked: Presentation from the GLA on the scale of opportunity and successes already delivered; presentations by Siemens and IBM in Smart Cities workstream; creative examples from elsewhere to inspire change in UK cities.    Dislike: No free wifi (or not that I could find)                 

Quality contributors and discussion  Lots of interaction.  Chairs tended to repeat questions and answers too often and result in time lost  Disapointed tea/coffee and food ran out, those engaged in over running sessions missed out  Do more outside London.   

SPACE Main room was great, rooms on upper floors were a bit small.  FORMAT Like mix of plenary and streams.  Had lots of good ones to choose from.  TECH - Think you should use more technology - liked the texting service to answer survey questions, used in morning commercial retrofit stream.                 

Good line up of speakers who seemed to be well briefed and good variety of events to atend. The plenary sessions could have touched on some new ground to make them stronger and there was not enough food at lunch (by the time we had got out of our session it had almost all gone) and what there was was not particularly nice.  However, the venue as a whole was very good.                   

Particular liked the end of day Panel session, chaired by Steve Norris. Steve fulfilled his role very well and all speakers, were articulate, concise and added real value.  Guru Banavar - excellent Keynote. Good location, good exhibition space. For those in meetings and not in the sessions, would have like day long supply of coffee/tea and water. Thanks.

The break out sessions  Keynote speeches would have benefitted from detail on specific elements rather than highlevel overview. 

The opening plenary was pretty dull. The Better Buildings Partnership's sessions were excellent, especially the morning. Venue very good.                    

Quality of the speakers was high.  Focus of discussions followed too closely the business / services of the sponsors.                  

Speakers were authoritative and high calibre, sessions were well coordinated to investigate topic in depth                      

Final plenary excellent. First plenary OK. Catering terrible.                  

Likes: Networking. Dislikes: better to have the venue on one floor.

I think overall it was a good event - just not quite right for me and my role.  My biggest problems with the event were that a) the rooms upstairs were freezing - which made for uncomfortable sessions b) there was no sound system in place for the presenters which meant two presentations were interrupted by techie guys trying to sort it out.  This should have been planned for - it seemed like there was one set of speakers being shared across the whole top floor c) I had ordered a gluten free lunch and it took the best part of 25 minutes to locate someone who know what gluten was (I was offered a vegetarian sandwich) and who could then find me something to eat.  By which time the networking session was in full swing. 

Speaker organisation in the session I was speaking in was very poor. Despite arriving early we didn't have much room prep time due to use of the room for a fringe event.  Then the assistants asked "where are your presentations" when I and another speaker had sent them in in advance as requested.  The session chair only arrived just before 2pm and tried to disconnect the laptop.  Then someone found the ppts were on the laptop after all.  All of this was due to inadequate briefing of the assistants and chair coupled with inadequate room prep time.     

Smart Grid Presentations were the highlight for me.  The lack of a single large meeting area made the networking harder than I would have liked.           

I attended Base London purely for the Aldersgate Group's seminar on the Circular Economy.  An excellent event, with a strong panel and good discussion.  I thought the lay-out of the stands and room was not satisfactory.  Difficult to move around - felt crowded in each of the corridor sections outside the rooms.  I might have stayed for more of the programme, if the layout had been better.                   

The morning and afternoon sessions were excellent - attended Smart Cities in morning, first speaker - Rick Robinson I think - was very engaging. The afternoon seminar on public sector and commercial retorfit was also very good. I missed the beginning of the morning plenary but arrived at the beginning of the Siemens speech. This and the speeches following seemed a bit agenda-led (huge sponsoring companies insisting they take the lead in sustainability) but perhaps that's me being cynical. Didn't attend afternoon plenary so couldn't comment.                

Likes: Workshops. Dislikes: The layout was different and I don't think worked well as people got separated and it was quite hard to find people. 

Excellent speakers. The layout was a bit disjointed and some exhibitors were tucked out of site. I also felt the food service was a bit odd. It would have been more helpful if the waiters / waitresses had proferred food as the walked around rather than standing in one place and expecting people to go to them.                 

Variation of events, quality of speakers the 'stand' area was very hot!   

Liked: Range and status of speakers; topics covered; choice of break-out sessions  Disliked: the venue - sound wasn't great in the main hall, refreshments were a bit lacking (on some floors).                

The retrofit workshops were interesting. When will all the C40 cities have completed entering all their data on the system. I think graphs comparing progress and an emissions per capita metric would be useful for now and in the future as the energy efficiency measures take effect.

The break out sessions where very interesting and topical. I would have liked these to be longer. I felt there were too many to choose from however. There were many I would have liked to have attended but had to choose one. I have to say also I found the morning plenary quite tough to sit through. For that amount of time with three speakers essentially reading scripts one after another with no slides or little interactivity was difficult. Before when you've had a guest speaker such as Rory Bremner who was thought-provoking yet funny really broke up the session.        Perhaps if each of the breakout workshops were filmed and could be made available online? Perhaps sponsored etc. to cover costs. Hopefully presentations will be made available online.  

Panel Sessions were very useful and gave a broad introduction to a number of pressing issues.              

I liked how well attended it was and the speakers in the first morning session were most informative - particularly listening to Richard Blakeway and Fiona Fletcher Smith. The Commercial Property workshop I attended was also really well done and helpful too. Overall, I think the venue lacked. It was a bit pokey establishing where we had to be with all the levels and the lifts weren't working properly at all. The workshop room I was in too was far too cold. A few little things which potentially affected a really high quality event.   

Likes:  quality of speakers and presentations; breadth of topics. Aldersgate and non-domestic retrofit sessions were two highlights. Attendees from different disciplines.  Dislikes: congestion around main conference area by drinks stations.  The spaces seemed too small for the number of people.                    

Great networking opportunities due to the audience the event attracted. Good information in break-out sessions.                       

Good seminars and speakers; morning plenary a little 1-dimensional as just financiers talking. Everyone needs to distinguish between project finance and cleantech VC-type finance.  

I found the conference very useful. Some feedback: (a)  outside hall circulation/refreshment/meeting space TOO cramped (b)  Exhibition looked like a tag on, it would have been better in one half of the big hall? (c)  the staff and refreshments were first class (d) the materials were also excellent (e) what happened to Isabel Dedring, who was supposed to speak at 12.30?

It was a good event overall. I do think that the parallel workshops would have had a better attendance if they didn't have to compete with the lunch...

The main auditorium and quality of the A/V was good, however, attention to safety left a lot to be desired. The platform for speaker seating was crowded and the step up/down was a hazard. This was the same for the raised speakers lecturn. I did not see anyone there with a disability, but if there had of been, they would have been at even more risk.             

I only attended one of the breakout sessions in the morning as I was invited specifically for that. When I arrived it was during the break so was looking for a cup of tea - I had to go to five different stations to find one. Two were out of hot water, one had hot water but no tea bags, another had hot water and tea bags but no clean mugs. It was quite ridiculous to have to run around looking for that. I also found the lunch not quite 'finger food'.                 

Like: the variety of presenters, the diversity and interest level of participants, the level of discussion and engagement of audience  Dislike: Logistics of the venue (stewards did not know rooms, food was scarce, poor acoustic of networking corridors), some presentations of poor quality.  As a young professional, I hope Base thinks about arranging/improving more dedicated involvement from new professionals/ "young" perspectives.    

LIKE: Having a large number of delegates was good and enabled the networking to be particularly useful.   Also some of the speakers such as Douwe Jan Joustra, were extremely interesting    DISLIKE: The food.  The arrival croissants and pastries were not as fresh as they should have been and at lunchtime, there was a short gap planned between the 12.30pm workshop finish and the planned 12.45pm start of a fringe event on Floor 1.  The workshop over-ran & by the time I got to Floor 1 & tried to get some lunch on Floor 1, there were no plates left for hot food and in any case only a few hot chicken pieces left which could not be eaten without a plate.  I grabbed a couple of tiny fruit tarts and went into the fringe event. I realise that there had been no delegate fee but it did seem very unsatisfactory.      

Opening Session - need to allow speakers to use powerpoint slides or other methods to illustrate their points.  Circular Economy - need more concrete examples of how the circular economy is being implemented.                

Unimpressed regarding availablity of wheat free alternatives at coffee. I asked the hotel and they wanted to charge me for a sandwich. There appeared to be no lunch option and I returned to the drinks reception about 6pm to find all drinks were gone and had to buy my own before the supper. In all for me the hospitality was poor.     The directions to various areas was poor and the number of delegates in the Commercial property workshops was a joke with constant interuptions for extra chairs etc. Another venue and be more generous with food and drink.       

Workshop sessions and fringe were good.  The keynote was uneven, particularly Richard Blakeway. Fiona was good however. I would have preferred more insight and useful info, as in Fiona's, and less "advertising", as Richard's and a bit of Rolands.  The food service at the venue really fell down coffee often missing, late, etc. lunch was very disorganised and not really very good. Physically, the venue was okay and it was well located.      

Wide range of participants with direct interest good.  Could have done with some challengers, those who are likely to raise issues, such as think tanks and economists.                   

I thought yesterday's plenary addresses were nice but a little bit rambling and also uninspiring compared to previous years. The exhibition space also was a little narrow and spread out. Great event though for catching up with people. Went to the Temple breakfast briefing. Was very surprised at the lack of knowledge on smart grids and why they put it together with smart cards.Food was excellent at lunchtime.           

The presenters a the plenary sessions were good, however, I found them very hard to hear, the sound system didn't seem to project their voices very well. Speakers were also overshadowed by clearing up cups and plates from the tea of coffee breaks, people outside the room chatting and the roaming photographers camera.   Was very disappointed with the food options. I understand that dietary requirements were sent, but I was unable to eat any of the food offered and had to leave the function centre to purchase lunch.  I attended the non-domestic retrofit morning and afternoon workshops, the morning session was very good and very useful. Also interesting to hear how other cities are tackling carbon reduction.             

Sessions on transport and logistics were very good. Opening plenary and keynote address was of limited usage - nothing new covered.               

The venue was not particularly easy to find. There was not enough space the room the meeting I specfically went for. The content was excellent and the speakers of high calibre.              

Good range of speakers. The basement floor was chaotic and cramped during the breaks. Refreshments ran out quickly and too ages to be replenished. Breaks were too long. Left at lunch time.                   

The venue and catering were poor.  I didn't like the bankers - not much environmental commitment there!  And the Siemens Sustainability Centre is quite clearly not even remotely a sustainable building - it just happens to have a heat pump.  Some of the retrofit speakers were just the same old presentations from the same speakers who have been hawking them around fthe conference circuit for the last six months.  As a networking opportunity the event was very good.                      

Seminars were good  Food was below average            

It was very long and a 2 hour last session was too much.  The session on the circular economy was brilliant and so good to have something that was looking at waste - in the rest of the sessions there was a heavy emphasis on energy, or was that the point?!  I thought the debate at the end was really good, personally I struggled with the talks from people from other cities but that should have been good, maybe I was just tired by then!  The layout was a bit odd, or may be it made it interesting!  And lunch was an interesting challenge, but it kept people moving which was probably good.                     

Location was poor   AV system in the main hall was hopeless.  Liked the break-out sessions although longer for Q&A and less speeches would be an improvement. Too Public Sector focussed so becomes a talking shop.

Lecture spaces were good size and speakers were interesting but I didn't like the rest of the space. It was a cramped corridor which was cramped and tight. You ran out of coffee and tea with queues for each (and nothing at the end) when coffee finally re-appeared there was no milk or sugar! (All this is vital stuff for conferences!) 

LIKES - Large, busy feel with good atmosphere.  Well chaired, good lunch.  Good, high calbre plenary sessions.  Good choice of workshop sessions to suit specialisms. DISLIKES - too long a lunch break, 1 hour would have been enough.  The two housing workshops were in a room that was too big not to have microphones. If you were at the back you could neither see nor hear!    

Better quality of speakers needed: more senior ppl that actually take decisions on sustainability issues. There was a sense in which the ppl you invited were more bureaucrats than decision makers.  Make sure that panel moderators and just that: some monopolized the time, and allowed for very few questions! Next time, make sure your keynote speaker actually has something new and meaningful to say, rather than reciting numbers ...