December 6, 2007
Architects, engineers ‘court’ UW in on-the-job version of speed dating
They call it the Capital Projects Office (CPO) version of speed dating.
Last week, the UW held a first-ever meeting of architect and engineer “suitors” with the people who will vote thumbs up or down on who gets to work on UW new design, construction or renovation projects. The response was strong.
Which isn’t surprising, considering the UW’s volume of capital projects exceeds $300 million annually.
“We decided we had room for about 25 firms, and we ended up with about twice that many who were interested,” says Doug Jennings, manager of CPO’s architect/engineer partnership program.
Although the process for pursuing UW design services jobs is very open and public by statute, some firms feel they are disadvantaged by not being well known on campus. “We get feedback in which firms say they don’t get hired because they aren’t known, and they aren’t known because they’re not getting work on campus,” Jennings says. “So we decided to have a meeting of UW stakeholders with architecture firms that are interested in working on campus.”
The emphasis was on architecture firms because they are often the prime contractors who in turn subcontract the engineering portion of the job. Jennings points out that the event could help CPO to improve the delivery of architecture and engineering services to campus clients by getting to know some new and talented firms.
These firms want to know who the decision maker is — and, unlike the private sector, at the UW selection is by a committee of those involved in the project. “Even when they understand the process,” Jennings says, “they feel they might have a better chance if committee members knew them.”
To build the list of invitees, Jennings and the CPO team started with firms identified by the Office of Minority and Women and Business Enterprises. To this list were added small firms and new firms. Those that accepted ended up predominately from the minority and women business group.
“The UW has a stated policy of promoting diversity,” Jennings says. “Although Initiative 200 eliminated any mandatory goals for our contracts, we still have voluntary goals. Beyond that, we believe it is a good policy to have a consultant pool that reflects the diversity of the community.”
Capital Projects was able to convince more than 30 UW individuals who are likely to serve on selection committees to spend a morning meeting with potential consultants. They included Campus Engineering, Environmental Health & Safety, CPO, and of course campus clients that have multiple projects. The state General Administration Office also participated and was in on the planning of the event; General Administration is responsible for construction with many state agencies that do not have their own capital projects office. “Their goals coincide closely with ours, so we planned this as a joint event,” Jennings says.
Groups of stakeholders sat at one of a dozen tables. Each consultant was given 15 minutes at the tables they had pre-selected — time for an introduction, a very brief presentation, and some dialogue. Then they were on to the next table. The session lasted nearly four hours. At the end, there were many positive comments and a lot of enthusiasm.
“It was an interesting concept that I think worked really well,” says John Rose, an architect with DKA in Seattle. “You had to be well prepared to present yourself, get feedback and ask questions. I enjoyed it.”
Sam Cameron, an architect with Rolluda Architects, knew Jennings but had never met any other UW project managers. “I think it’s important to see other faces at the UW, and to get the faces of our firm in front of them,” he says. “This was great on-the-spot marketing for us.”
The UW people who participated thought the event was great, says Alan Nygaard, director of business services in CPO. “We’re sending out a questionnaire to the firms that participated, but it’s highly likely, given the number of companies on the waiting list, that we will have at least one more event of this kind.”
CPO is not the only unit that has a local version of speed dating. Purchasing has been holding similar events to provide vendors with an opportunity to meet UW buyers. “It turns out the more we looked, the more we found that events like this are pretty common,” Jennings says.
Already, CPO is discussing whether it might be worthwhile to host other, similar events, such as a gathering in which major architecture firms can meet smaller engineering enterprises.
