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Episode 34 - Part 2: Surveyors UK - what’s in it for you and the industry?
48 Plays1 year ago
Our latest podcast episode features Nina from Surveyors UK, where we discuss how Surveyors UK is aiming to streamline the surveying profession. From connecting industry professionals to offering vital resources for students, this platform is a game-changer. 🌐🤝
Introduction to Surveyors UK: Nina explains the concept and goals behind Surveyors UK, emphasising the need for a centralised hub for the surveying professio
Benefits for Students and Professionals: Surveyors UK provides resources for students, including finding jobs and mentors, and connects professionals for collaboration on projects.
Community Groups and Memberships: The platform offers specialised community groups and a membership model that includes both free and affordable paid options.
Additional Features: Surveyors UK includes a variety of resources such as podcasts, news, blogs, events listings, job boards, CPD training, and partnerships with product and service providers.
Positive Reception and Impact: Nina shares the initial positive feedback and growth, highlighting partnerships with professional bodies, universities, and the broad support the platform has received.
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Transcript
Introduction to Surveyors UK
00:00:00
Speaker
For part two of this week's episode we're speaking to Nina ah from Surveyors UK and on this particular part we're going to discuss what actually is Surveyors UK. So I suppose ah over to you. Do you want to let us know where it's come from and what it's going to do? Yeah sure Matt. um I think I've been asked this question a lot and hopefully I'll get it across quite concisely.
00:00:22
Speaker
um But Surveyors UK is really addressing a number of challenges in the civilian profession. It's basically the profession is very siloed. I think there's not enough awareness, even from early careers, as we've we've talked about in earlier, about what a surveyor is, what they do. And I think there are so many things going on. It's a massive
Inspiration and Goals of Surveyors UK
00:00:49
Speaker
area. It's a massive profession.
00:00:51
Speaker
It spans across industries. So you've got all these different areas with construction, the state agency, architects, everyone comes into touch with surveyors. But nobody's thought to bring it into one place and bring in and showcase the best of what the surveying profession has to offer. And that's by working with professional bodies, universities,
00:01:16
Speaker
firms, organizations, everyone that works within and across the profession and go, look, here it is. This is surveying. And these are the professional bodies. These are the course providers, you know, these are the thought leaders. um And so I kind of thought, felt like, well, if you wanted to learn about something, where would you go? And you obviously so you can find things, but it's spread everywhere. So I hope that kind of gives a feel for what it is.
00:01:44
Speaker
No, it doesn't. you You touched on it um earlier. So you have the student group and and that's really, really good resource for for students specifically. And then there's yeah thought there's other groups as well. um But you're right, there isn't a central hub where you can go to to then um sort of drill down and find what you need to having to constantly search. So I understand the concept. um I suppose what why are you launching it? What why what what drove you to sort of want to do it, I suppose. It was one of the i had one of those moments and it was it was kind of, I think it was very much um inspired by the student group. I think when I realized um how much that was helping
00:02:26
Speaker
you know the students whether even finding a job through there or finding a mentor or just getting support and advice and i thought how about if we had something like this but where we could help and benefit thousands of people so thousands of students and surveyors and help provide a resource and a place to go, to ask questions, to connect to network.
Connecting the Industry
00:02:52
Speaker
And it was kind of a thought, and it was kind of a bit of a light bulb moment. I'm like, this needs somewhere, literally a central place. and So we can kind of connect. It is all about, always come back to connections. It is connecting the industry together. Whether that be a student looking for a job or a mentor, whether that be a surveying firm,
00:03:14
Speaker
that is looking to work on a project with another surveying firm so they can connect together, whether it's thought leadership yeah and industry level issues that can be discussed because we facilitate that through the through the site. So there's lots of different things going on and I think we needed somewhere to to bring it together and for people to collaborate because ah lots of things are going on that I see across the board and I see them all doing it separate and I'm like, you know, let's come together.
00:03:42
Speaker
Yeah, and if you stop the duplication of effort, we can then put more effort into actually progressing rather than repeating the same processes over. Yeah, exactly that, yeah.
Community and Communication Strategies
00:03:50
Speaker
I suppose... um' Yeah, how how will it work? So if you're a surveyor or student or anyone else going on to the site, you mentioned one thing earlier, I think around WhatsApp groups and yeah, sort of 200 people involved and it's pinging away and before you know, you lost track of what's happened. How will, how will surveyors UK address sort of those types of issues where you've become part of a group and you want to be able to learn about something, ask a question and track it more easily? Are you having discussion areas? and Yeah, yeah.
00:04:20
Speaker
Yeah, we've got term community groups at the moment. Before the full rollout, we've got two groups that you can join, a general student group and surveying group. But with the full rollout membership, um which students can join for free as well, but it's important. um And then you can sign up to pay a monthly subscription like £12 a month. It's meant to be really affordable because the idea is we want thousands of survey surveyors and students on there.
00:04:47
Speaker
because they'll benefit each other. But once you get inside that paid membership, we're going to have specialist communities. like So for example, in one of the areas, PropTech, software AI, a lot of survey has gone, I don't know where to go to ask questions about what's out there, ah you know, what's happening in AI. So we're basically facilitating communities within the site. And that that is just one element of SurveyGK, but that's quite a central and important area.
00:05:18
Speaker
Yeah, i think I think those discussions could be quite valuable, actually, because it's that knowledge share then. um But yeah, hope hopefully, it sort as you say, it develops in a way where people ask the question without feeling it's public or, you know, does someone going to make sure it's only for putting their hand up and
Membership Benefits and Features
00:05:33
Speaker
stuff like that? so Yeah, I've kind of brought from my doing social media marketing for years, um I've kind of brought with two to this kind of the best things of social media, but it's off social media.
00:05:46
Speaker
So it's not going to be dictated to by algorithms. So you're not going to post something. I mean, LinkedIn's brilliant. I love LinkedIn, but you'll post something and it's gone. You'll post an event, you'll share an opportunity or you'll post for for mentoring or something and it disappears. And so we're facilitating something that there'll be discussion groups. You can post up a discussion topic. You can directly instant message someone else. You know, you can do all the things you can tag people in.
00:06:14
Speaker
It's kind of all the things you can do at the moment, really, on on LinkedIn and and Facebook. But with the student group, for example, um i one of the things I came across was at least one in four and people would say to me, I'd love to join your group, but I'm not on Facebook. Or I have people that are on Facebook and they don't want to post because it's their personal profile. It's their kind of family, personal things.
00:06:39
Speaker
And then you have it where lots of A's do not want to post on LinkedIn because it's public, because it is. You have no control. Whereas within Savegik, we're going to moderate it. So everyone that joins, you would moderate it like you would with ah with a group or community.
00:06:57
Speaker
but they have the ability to post things, you know, and it's not, not a fear of, you know, yeah. essential customer seeing a question yeah And kind of carry on the ethos of the student group where it's it's a great community. We've, we've barely had any issues with that um because it's all about who you allow to join, you know, and making sure that everyone's fair and supports each other. um You know, there's no bullying and things like that. We've got group rules set up within the platform. And if people aren't, then,
00:07:28
Speaker
you know, they'll have to leave. Yeah, because we're very strict on that. Yeah, I don't think that's important because you have to you have to be able to have ah an open culture of discussion and, you know, without fear of being knocked down for asking questions. It's good to have that. Yeah, it's having the opinion but not ah supportive. Everyone has is entitled to opinions and and you want, we want debate, we want discussion, but we want it done in a fair way, you know, and I think that's the thing and it's,
00:07:56
Speaker
but Yeah, there's so there's lots of communities and long term, with the growth of the site, what we do want to do is roll out regional groups. Because one of the things that is really needed is if you're a student or surveyor in in a region, and you want to network online in the community, you know, even with youracular your local estate agent can join a conveyance so people can discuss things and discuss projects that are down the road or local topics. So that is the You know, sort of the end, the end game is to have regional groups and get events on there as well as part of it. Oh, no, that's really good. Actually. So you mentioned, you mentioned the sort of discussion, it's a one, one aspect of it. what What are the other areas you're trying to, or looking to help with in terms of the the sort of the side lot
Professional Development Opportunities
00:08:42
Speaker
different areas. So one of the areas we've done with, uh, collated and we're just, uh, literally that's that area is just being worked on at the moment.
00:08:50
Speaker
is we pull in all the podcasts. So all the podcasts from across surveying and there's a lot of overlap. So there's some like in construction that are relevant. We're going to have them a dedicated news area. We're going to have blogs. So we're interested in hearing from guest writers, people who already write their own blogs or want to write some content with their expertise. And we publish them on the big areas of events. So we we are working with conference providers um You know, for example, the RICS matrix events, get matrix events on there. um Even local meetups, we know lots of A's do local meetups. You can even put that on there. So events is another one. um Job board, so I'll have a job board in the platform. So that would be open for anyone just to, you know, obviously search jobs and and link through to opportunities. We're going to have a big area, which is is probably one of the key areas that
00:09:49
Speaker
sort of really sort of suggested this was needed was around CPD and training. So we're talking to lots of CPD providers, training companies um to provide CPD, whether it's online, whether it's pre-recorded, whether it's face-to-face, you know, um that's another area of training. Because when you sign up as a member, you will have your own professional dashboard. You will be able to literally save things into that and watch it at your leisure.
00:10:20
Speaker
Um, so, you know, that's kind of quite an important area. I think, you know, especially within the surveyor side, when they've got their CPD requirements, because we're going to also with collated lots of free CPD. So, you know, it's not just paid paid paid areas. The other big area that, um, has been had a lot of interest is we are partnering with a lot of anyone that provides a product or service to the surveying profession.
Partnerships and Feedback
00:10:49
Speaker
So we are talking to insurance companies, ah equipment providers, um security companies that want to provide penetration tests for our members, you know, and lots of difference. Anyone that wants to sort of get in front of surveyors. And what we're doing with them is we're partnering up and they're providing discounts to members, free trials, that kind of thing. Software is a big one. Software, yeah you know, that's a big area. And so what can we provide as value and and not just necessarily just a discount to sign up to the software, but we've got people that are going to do videos for his content, you know, and just share that within the community. Yeah. Yeah. No, I think that sounds really good. because It's, um, no, as a survey, you don't want to spend all your time just trying to find resources that you need specific things. So if you can get on with it, I think the CPD one sounds really good because
00:11:42
Speaker
when you have to submit what you've been doing all year, trying to go back and find what it was. If you haven't kept a log, it's it's nice to be able to log in and go, right, that's everything I've done. This is what it adds up to, fantastic. So, um but yeah, I agree. I think it's to to be able to find all the different things you need quickly so you can then focus on actually analyzing stuff rather than um trying to find it in the first place, which is, I suppose, something we've talked about before and with AI and what, you know, the benefits of what that can do. But that's another, another topic altogether. That is, yeah, altogether.
00:12:11
Speaker
what's what What's been the initial response? Because you've had some people logging in, obviously, already on on on soft launch. so but what's What's been the initial feedback? Oh, incredible. Incredible. I think we had three registered members. I think when I look last week, when we first, was it last week? I've lost track of time at the moment. and But when we yeah first went live, we had 93 registrants in two days, literally, you know, we had over 650 Um, people that I've registered on the early bird landing page, but the feedback has been incredible. And this is from across the board. So with regards to the professional bodies that we're talking to, you know, we're talking to the, the RICS, the CIOB, the, the TSA, um, the expert witness Institute. I mean, there are so many, um, to have them on board, because there'll be an area just for professional bodies. I have their own directory.
00:13:06
Speaker
And then universities, it's been extremely positive um because universities can have their own profile page and get involved. But we've just had a lot of interest from um people that want to get involved with things at an industry level, because what we can facilitate over time is like closed
Facilitating Collaboration
00:13:25
Speaker
working groups. So rather than a WhatsApp, we've got the software we could, as long as you're a member on there,
00:13:31
Speaker
we can facilitate a closed working group that where people can discuss things and exchange things off social media, but private. um we Yeah, that it's been extremely positive, but very positive. You know, we've been nominated for two awards now, shortlisted for two awards. So one was before we had the first stage go live, and we just got to know about one last week. The Great British Entrepreneur Awards were shortlisted for that.
00:13:58
Speaker
um Awesome. Well, congratulations on that. yeah yeah grace does i think I think the feedback and and stuff like that shows that there's obviously a an appetite for for what you're doing. so Yeah, we we literally, i almost every day, I have someone that that will thank us for it. They're literally going, this is brilliant. This is what this is what we need. um People are very interested in getting involved, just supporting what we're doing. you know I've had so many people say, I'd love to get involved Nina, just tell me,
00:14:26
Speaker
you know, what what can we do? And people that just happy to spread the word, have been asked about having Savage UK, you know, names of our logo on their websites. And people just kind of wanna, when we've realized that what we're trying to do is, were we don't compete with anyone. We're literally bringing together everybody in ah in an impartial way and an independent way and saying, look, this is this is what's out there. And it's like sharing that's just,
00:14:55
Speaker
collaborate, right yeah yeah collaborate, work together. Because I think, you know, I've got a motto. um It's not just what you know, it's who you know, that's something that's a real motto for me. And people will benefit so much just from knowing other people, whether it be ask a question, or whether it be, I don't know, get some advice or learn about marketing tips, you know, that there were some different things.
00:15:19
Speaker
that people benefit from those connections from a business level as well, from owning your own business, you know. I completely agree with that. I mean, our our philosophy at SurveyBook has always been um collaborate rather than, you know, we're not here to step on toes. We're here to help connect all the different bit systems people use so they can operate more efficiently, more effectively. So we're not there to ah yeah step on anyone's toes. We're there to help build a a better environment and um make the pie bigger, um the moreph more more useful. um So it's exactly the same philosophy you've got, which is connect everyone, make it better.
00:15:53
Speaker
Yeah, make it better. That's exactly. it And as you know, there was so much change going on out there in the world, especially in the area of technology. um It's phenomenal. But I think it is that sharing. And I think there's enough out there for everyone. I really do. um I really do believe that. And I think there's just incredible things happening. ah it's it's it's It's a very, there's a lot of change. It's a very interesting time in civilian. It really is. And I think it's an exciting time.
00:16:21
Speaker
Oh, definitely. It's an interesting time in the world, I think. it's a definitey yeah yeah So um yeah, but ah I suppose just to to wrap up yeah this particular topic, if if people want to get involved, um how do they how do they register or or yeah start getting involved with with things? Yeah, sure.
Getting Involved
00:16:39
Speaker
I mean, there's there's all different ways, but obviously you can go straight to the website, which you can see up there.
00:16:44
Speaker
debbu at survey surveys uk dot com or on social media. So we're on, um we're on LinkedIn, Facebook um and Instagram and obviously just Google us. You can find us now. I think where we literally, so after going live, you can find us on page one of Google or on the, you know, probably halfway up the page, which is great.
00:17:04
Speaker
Um, or if anyone's really interested in, you know, wanting to know more, get involved or, you know, working with us, um, or partnering with us, just get in touch with me, which is Nina at surveys.uk but.com. Just drop me, drop me an email.
00:17:20
Speaker
Perfect. Well, I think the only thing I'd add is I think for it to be a useful resource for everyone, it's going to be as good as what you put into it, not as a new, but as a user on the site. So don't hide in the background, ask the questions, get involved in conversations. Yeah, very fine. And then that's where the value will come from. That's it, please. Yeah, it's providing that area for people to do that as a safe place where people can speak up and know their views.
00:17:48
Speaker
Definitely. Well, good luck with ah the sort of next phases of yeah growth and hopefully we can catch up again on this particular topic a bit later. and Yeah, definitely. Tune in for topic three, where we're going to be discussing improving marketing in the survey surveying industry, which ties back into a couple of things we've touched on already.