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The Home of Self Build, Custom Build & Renovation
• 67,000 sq. ft. year-round resource centre with 200+ stands
• Independent advice on everything from planning to plastering
• Self Build courses, exhibitions and Architect consultation days
• Free entry, plenty of parking and easy access just off the M4
These episodes will investigate various subjects in more detail, with expert guests, and previewing upcoming shows and events to help you with your potential or current self build and renovation projects.
Well, good afternoon.
Welcome to the incredible
National Self-Build and
Renovation Centre.
And it is.
We're live in the centre
right now and you'll see
that these guys have got a
fabulous facility.
My name is Chris Dawes and
I'm from Visual PR and I'm
delighted to be teaming up
with NSBRC for the first episode,
leading into a particular show in October,
which we'll come on to in a moment.
But it really is to give you
an opportunity to delve deeper into the
Mass of subjects that we
could be covering here.
Let's be honest.
So keep your eyes peeled.
The aim is, well, at the moment,
it's every two weeks,
but we'll always be scheduled in advance.
You'll be able to see what it is.
Obviously, I'm not the key person here.
I'm just the host that's
going to keep this conversation flowing.
Before I introduce my guests,
wherever you're watching,
whether it's on Facebook,
LinkedIn or YouTube.
if you add any comments or
questions there we'll be
able to put them up on
screen along with your
profile name and photo so
please don't hesitate if
you've got any questions
comments uh anything that
you can add to the
conversation please do drop
them in it's deliberately
an engaging uh conversation
I say that if you're
watching it back recorded
then it doesn't work quite
that way I've not mastered
time travel just yet but
watch this space you never
know so without further ado
and I'm going to do it
purely from that angle,
is that we've got Nick Want,
and I'm looking at my notes
because I've got the change
title description,
sustainability manager now.
Yeah, that's right.
Thanks, Chris.
Yeah, so brand new job title for this week,
actually, for me.
So yeah,
sustainability manager at the centre.
So yeah,
I've been with NSBRC for six months now.
Just started this week, a brand new role,
sustainability manager.
Which almost doesn't sound like a new role,
just from the few conversations we've had,
is that that was something
you were clearly very passionate about.
Yeah,
I think it was through the first six
months of me being here,
it's kind of just finding
the feet of what this role
is and it taking shape.
So it's a bit of a mix of
project management,
which actually turned out
being quite sustainable focused projects.
Yeah.
and then also dipping into a
bit of marketing as well
and chipping in with the
great work that Katie and Claire do.
which is where obviously our
connection then came,
is working on things like this as well.
And you're going to be
coming live from day one of
the show and all those sort of things.
So you get clobbered with a
lot of that side of things.
Yeah.
Well, great to, I was going to say meet.
It feels like I should say meet with you,
but speak with you on this episode.
Yeah, great to meet you publicly.
Yeah, publicly.
People now know that we know each other.
That's the key one.
Katie Ashcroft, content marketing manager.
That's right, yep.
Yours is a bit longer that
you've been associated with NSBRC.
That's right.
Yes.
I've worked at the centre
for a number of years now.
I think I started full time
in twenty eighteen.
I'm not sure how it's flown by.
I think it's because we keep
very busy putting on all the events.
Absolutely, which you do quite a lot,
don't you, over the course of the year?
Oh, yeah.
Yeah, very much so.
But just confirmed even our
twenty twenty five dates.
So feeling pretty ahead of the game,
but not to get ahead of
ourselves because we've
still got the October show first.
And I guess you need to be that far ahead,
don't you?
For certainly the core dates
need to be in the calendar.
Yeah,
we have something what feels like
almost every weekend, really,
whether it's one of our big
shows that we do three times a year.
But other than those,
every weekend or at least
every fortnight is peppered
with some sort of more
focused or targeted
workshops or training courses,
which obviously you do, Rob, as well.
So, yeah,
there's always something going on.
I love it.
And we'll come into NSBRC
itself in a bit more detail.
We don't want to assume that
everybody knows what it is.
So we are going to go into
that in a bit more detail.
But first,
we've got a special guest for
this episode.
I say that, Rob,
because obviously you're...
I don't feel that special.
Well, you are.
You are, trust me.
You are.
It's Rob Bone.
Is that right, Bone?
Yeah, absolutely.
Well done.
Thank you.
There's only four letters.
It's surprising how hard
that is to pronounce.
I know, I know.
Most people get it wrong,
so congratulations.
Thank goodness for that.
You are a heating consultant
for CLPM project management.
Correct, yeah.
Management services, sorry.
But you're also an NSBRC
course presenter as well.
And general help desk, general dog's body,
really.
I think I have several.
I think advisor would be the right answer.
Slash.
Yeah, yeah, that as well.
No, I do have several hats.
So, yeah,
so I'm actually a heating
engineer by trade.
And that was my core business many,
many years ago.
And about ten years ago, I thought,
you know,
it's time to sort of hang this
banners up somewhere and
get involved in actually
sort of helping other people.
I had a very good fortune of
being involved in a whole
different types of heating
and plumbing and building projects.
And I also had the very good
fortune of getting involved
with renewable technologies very,
very early on when it first hit market.
Wow.
So I was one of the very early guys.
And I must admit,
when we first started looking at them,
we were all scratching our heads going,
how does this work?
What is it?
What does it do?
And it was really early days.
It was quite exciting and
also quite daunting as well.
When was that then, do you reckon?
Oh, my God.
It was probably about
twenty-odd years ago.
Really?
Yes.
They came out earlier than a
lot of people thought.
Yeah, quite.
And I got involved with that primarily.
There was a company
relatively local who were
one of the really early doors people.
And I had a client who wanted to fit one.
And we didn't know anything about it.
They said, oh,
go and see them and do a course.
I said, okay.
And I did.
And the rest is history.
And say then I thought I got
to the point in my life
when I was thinking about
wanting to change.
new challenges I suppose I
joined clpm and clpm we are
a construction consultancy
business but we're an
independent consultancy
which people really really
like yes because a lot of
so say consultancies do
have a lot of affiliation
to suppliers and
contractors where we don't yeah
And we help people through
the whole process of
building their own houses,
extending their houses,
renovating their houses.
So on a commercial situation,
so we have quantity
surveyors to help with pricing.
We have project managers to
deliver the project.
And me and my little team,
we jump in early to help
people to find out what's
the best way of...
heating making your property
sustainable what are the
options what can you do
because no one option is is
always ready for every
single person there's no
silver bullet so we get in
there early we do energy
audits um we even do for
like commercial we do a lot
of churches believe it or
not really well yeah a few
years ago may or may not be
where the general synod
came out with this
wonderful description so I
said right um we're all
going to be carbon neutral
by twenty thirty yeah and
they all went hurrah
What does that mean?
So we've been sort of
helping sort of various
churches to try and get
closer to that neutrality.
In fact,
we're working on quite a major project,
which is really quite
exciting because they're a great,
great team.
It's a quite large church in
Birmingham and they are
really wanting to go as far
as they possibly can,
which I think is fantastic.
So it is exciting times.
They need to have the
motivation for it to then
call on the knowledge.
And I guess one of the other
things that was coming to my mind is that
it moves so quick that it's
then somebody that's all
over that and keeping
abreast of the changes.
Oh, my word, you're absolutely right.
I mean, first of all, legislation changes.
Yes.
So what's okay one year is not the next.
Funding.
Funding, government change,
policy change has an impact.
But tech, obviously, yeah, I mean,
you turn around and
something else has been done.
Staggering really quick, isn't it?
Yeah.
And me sort of working here
is a double whammy.
Because first of all,
I work here for the NSPRC.
So I work as a general
helper on the help desk
quite a few times a year.
So I just sit there, people come in,
and I help with the general inquiries.
In fact, one of my favorite games,
someone comes in.
I go and have a word with them.
I said, you know,
do you need any assistance?
And they go, no, no, I think we're fine.
I think we're fine.
I said, OK, well,
just tell me about your project.
They start mad.
Then I start firing questions at them.
An hour later, they go,
I suppose we did need some help.
I love doing that.
Shamelessly coming back to
the help desk halfway
through their visit.
Yeah, exactly.
Exactly.
And I love doing that.
And I get a great buzz from
helping people.
And then we have the shows
where I do presentations.
I play a bit of sort of master ceremonies.
And also I help to run courses.
So we have two major courses
which we help with.
One is the three-day self-builder course,
which is superb.
There's a huge amount of
information for the three days.
So anybody who's wanting to
build their own home or
even do a major renovation,
it's a good thing to do
because there's so much information.
And I run the third day,
which is primarily on
heating and sustainability.
Yep.
Also, I run a full day course,
which we're actually running this Friday,
which is a full renovation course,
which effectively goes
through the whole details
of what to do and how to do it.
There's a lot of detail in that.
And again, it's really,
really interesting because
no one scenario sits a
simple house and single
project and single person.
Everybody has different requirements.
And I do find that people
come away sort of thinking, oh, my God,
my head's going to explode.
There's so much information.
which is really nice and I
thoroughly enjoy it.
It's really, really engaging.
Which for me is what I pick
up about this place is that
a mixture of they don't
want to be overwhelmed with
everything all the time.
Well, not only have you got all the shows,
but this is a permanent
facility that people can come in,
go to the company that is
relevant to them now
because they've got questions,
they want to find out more,
they want to acquire stuff.
They can come in and do that at any point.
It's not just the shows.
Exactly that.
Yeah.
So we are the UK's only
permanent visitor centre.
So there may be other companies like us,
but we're the only one
that's here all the time.
So we're open Tuesday through to Sunday.
So I think it's great that
you've got the whole week almost,
apart from Mondays.
You've got weekends as well.
No one likes Mondays.
Yeah, Mondays.
You can deal with that.
We're very busy behind the
scenes on Mondays.
That's usually the day that
we've got lots of stand
maintenance going on,
lots of conferencing as well.
So there's always something
going on seven days a week here.
Like I said, we do keep busy,
but we do have the trade
stands here permanently,
which is probably the first
thing to tell viewers just because
we have over two hundred
stands in the center and
loads of life-size
educational exhibits you
can just drop into the
center at any point and
just have a peruse whenever
it's convenient for you
we're very well situated as
well so we're just off of
junction sixteen on the
m-four that's where we're
coming to our viewers live
from today yeah it's just
very easy to get to I think
I agree.
And heck,
you've even got a hotel if you
need to make a couple of
days and you've traveled
from further afield.
There's a hotel.
We won't name names because
they're not paying to advertise,
so we won't.
make joking but there is a
hotel just there so you can
come and make a couple of
days of it um and I guess
even for the the trade that
is here is that they've got
you've got facilities here
that they can suddenly
throw on specific training
days or anything like that
because you've got lots of
training rooms meeting
rooms seminar rooms let I
mean what's the big
auditorium down there and everything
yeah so yeah sustainability
theater just down there and
um yeah that's where some
of our lectures are
upcoming show will be such
a cool space yeah it's uh
sixty seven thousand square
feet really quite a big
area isn't it really yeah
incredible the center is uh
yeah it's it's it's mammoth
isn't it really the way the
warehouse that this this
was before it was formed
you know back in two
thousand and seven when it
was all transformed from
what could have been a
depot yeah actually into something which
That's how I feel.
It lives and it breathes.
Yeah, there's a real community here.
And I think that, yes,
you've got a trade village where,
of course,
there are businesses who have a
product or a service that
they would love you to buy.
But actually,
there's not a sales feel here.
There's actually...
where we'll make sure that
there's a range of
different solutions that
actually we have
relationships built between
the different exhibitors here.
And actually someone will be
really honest and say, actually,
I think you might be better
going speaking to them in this occasion.
And that builds a lot of trust.
And I think that offset with the
the specific exhibits,
which are all about education,
and they are not all about
a specific product or solution.
They're driven more from the
other end of what's the
challenge that you might
come up against and what do
you need to learn at point of entry.
Actually,
there's just a really nice
balance struck here.
And you must be the same as me, Nick.
We're just saying that it's
six months that you've been here,
so you're still within that fresh enough.
I've still got my new card.
It doesn't feel like it.
It feels like you're part of
the furniture.
Yeah, on one hand,
I'm part of the furniture.
but it still means you've
got an external view and
that wow factor and I use
that without exaggerating
is that still every time I
come to this place you know
we've got in the background
I love being up here is
that we've got full-size
I'm going to say fake
houses because obviously
they're not houses but that
doesn't they are they are
they really are show homes um
I think you're changing it,
but there was a whole building site,
as in a mock-up building.
Yeah, it's still there.
It's just getting gradually
a bit more empty as it was.
Because it's going to become
something different.
Yeah, so it was a demo building site,
and it still is.
It's kind of halfway there,
but we're making space for
an exciting new exhibit.
This is one of the projects
that I've aforementioned and kind of...
set about so yeah really
excited to be launching a
new new zone in twenty
twenty five um which is
going to be all about
retrofit so that's really
exciting so that's in
addition to our existing
renovation house um which
you'll see right down the
other end of the center
which we've had for a
little while and obviously
rob is uh really clued in
on that and gives a lot of
uh tours over there so you get um
If you're really lucky and
you're here at the right time,
you get a guided tour from
the likes of Rob or one of
our other help desk experts.
But actually,
any other time we have our
audio tours that you can
just scan the QR code over
there and you can listen
along and do it at your own pace as well.
Yeah, it's a really great setup.
So it's
It's one of the little stars
of the centre actually,
I think a little bit,
this exhibit where you look
at it from the front and
it's a full-sized front of
a nineteen twenties,
very dilapidated house that you think, oh,
if I had this house,
I probably would tear it
down if I had all these properties.
But I think what's great is
that whatever your property
is that you're looking at
and you've got a challenge
with it that you're looking to renovate,
you'll see that echoed in there.
But it's great.
You can go in the front and
you can see the first two rooms.
So you can see outside and
inside of the first two rooms.
And it's a bit of a wreck, isn't it, Rob,
really?
But then you can come out
the side and then you'll
see the front stripped back.
And you come in from the second angle,
you come through and see, oh, OK,
this is really taken down
to the bare bones.
And you can come in and see
what does it look like when
everything rips out.
Stage three of that is where
you get to see actually, okay,
work in progress,
starting to get some of the
actual renovation going.
And then finally,
you get to see the inside
and then last of all,
the outside of the finished product.
And it's like, wow,
is this the same house?
And I think what people often say is, oh,
surely that fourth one is
actually a bit bigger than the others.
It's like, no,
this is just what it looks
like when it's done nicely.
This is a good use of space.
So yeah,
it's really amazing to be able to
walk through that journey
to help people visualize
their renovation.
What jumps to mind then is
it means it's better than
the Harry Potter tour
because you don't get to go
in their houses.
See, this one you do.
People have said that.
Is it like a film set, the way it's done?
It genuinely looks like one.
I've never thought of it like that.
I love that.
I'm going to remember it.
I'm a bit worried I might get sued now.
officially, but it was just a bit of fun,
just a bit of fun.
We've got our own expert alley,
which is kind of a version
of their alley as well.
I'm going to reiterate it
because there's a few more
have joined in and watching live.
Welcome, everybody.
If you've got comments, questions,
please do type them in in the comments,
either on your Facebook,
YouTube or LinkedIn,
wherever you're watching it.
We'll be able to put that up
on screen with your profile
name and photo.
It's always good to get the interaction
uh even if it's your
experiences that you've had
here and something that's
stuck in your mind please
do I'm expecting that to
grow as we go through the
episodes that it'll get
more engaging but please
feel free to do that um
I want to quickly make
another point about this because,
and I'm allowed to, I'm external to NSBRC,
so I'm allowed to wax lyrical.
What I find about this place that makes it,
for me,
a jewel in the crown that deserves
to be even more well-known
than it is in our local
area in particular,
is even outside of this,
I've kind of touched it already,
but you've got not just the warehouse,
but in effect office spaces
that we've got a big, another auditorium,
room down there,
I know we've got over there,
what did you call it again?
So down there we've got the
Sustainability Theatre.
That's the one.
And the other end of the
centre is the Build It Theatre.
So that's our largest space
where we hold our talks.
It's got a stage and
everything there as well.
Yeah,
so those two theatres are where all
the seminars are held at our shows.
And then you've got various
size rooms for like big presentations,
big training, big meetings,
through to quite intimate
little rooms as well.
And they're available, as I understand it.
They are indeed, yeah.
Which is what I just find
incredible with the fact
that you can lay on
catering for these things as well.
So I've gone off on a slight tangent,
but it's just to know that
that's what people can do.
And it took me a while to
even know that this was on my doorstep,
which is sad, isn't it?
There's only about twenty of
us in the team as well,
so we've got this absolutely huge space,
but it's run by quite a
small but dedicated team of
employee owners.
Sustainable team, one might say.
It's a very small business,
but operating on a national scale.
So our reach is far and wide, but actually,
yes,
it's only twenty pairs of hands that
are actually getting involved,
plus two hundred plus exhibitors.
Yes, absolutely.
It's amazing how fast some people travel.
So because we're pretty much
the only one in the country, as it is,
I love talking to people.
And there was somebody a
little while ago and they
had a very strong Scottish accent.
I said, you know, by chance,
where have you come from?
They basically come from Shetland.
They'd flew down from
Shetland and spent two or three days,
as you said, staying at the hotel.
And they came to a show,
and they were soaking up a
lot of information.
And I thought, you know,
that one takes a ticket.
And then a little bit later,
I was on a help desk one day,
just a normal day.
And a couple of people came in,
and they were just sort of
milling around and not sure what to do.
So I introduced myself and
had a conversation with them.
And in fact,
there were two guys and then a
pair of architects.
And they were looking at
different building
techniques and so on and so forth.
And I was explaining a
different place what they could do.
And again,
a bit of background on the
different systems and so on and so forth.
I said, oh, you know, what's your project?
Oh,
we're looking to do a development of
about sort of forty-odd houses.
I said, oh, that's interesting.
He said, yeah,
but the problem is logistics.
I said, why?
He said, well, transportation.
Transportation, what's the issue?
He said,
we're looking to build on Falklands.
So they come to the Hawkins.
I thought, well, that's pretty good.
I think that's taken a bit
of the longest distance to
travel for someone to actually come here.
Of course,
they had come here to do other
things as well.
But high on their agenda was
to come here to learn more about systems.
And I thought it was fantastic.
And I'm genuinely not surprised.
There's the variety.
I mean, if you can think it...
around self-building,
renovation and building projects,
then it's going to be here.
I think that's probably a fair answer.
Yeah, any home building project really,
conversions, extensions as well.
And some amazing new tech around,
we're talking about sustainability.
What's the best way to say it?
Motability,
is that the right way to put it?
There's a lot of tech that
I've seen wandering around
here that helps people to
be able to move around the houses.
Yeah, so future-proofing.
And that's a really big
topic that comes up at
shows and workshops.
And it's interesting you say that because,
Nick,
I'm now picking up that you said
that to me about future-proofing.
It's not necessarily they
need it right now, but they're moving,
you said, moving into your forever home.
You might not need a stair lift right now.
That actually is,
are your stairs wide enough?
Yeah.
install that at the time
when you need it and
actually we've got all the
right people here to help
you make those decisions at
the planning stage yeah so
you're early on in your in
your decision making think
about all those things
don't block yourself at a
later date where you think
and that's just one of many
many considerations that
there could be and
especially and I'm not
going to go into details
because obviously we've got
multiple episodes to go
into to tie to detail on
things and when we're here
live on the eleventh of
october day one of the show
I'm going to be wandering
around with a mobile camera
as well as a studio set up for it.
And we'll chat to various people.
But one of them is that you
say stair lift.
And I've got a very distinct
view in my mind that it's
going up the side on the banister.
But it's like, actually, no,
there's a whole load of
other things here that
looks like a normal set of stairs.
And it then lifts up and things like that.
And it's like you wouldn't
know that you had that in your home.
So there's a lot of future
proofing and everything like that.
from a sustainability, from like I say,
motability is the only word
I can use for it.
There's just so much here.
And I'm being a bit
blinkered here because I'm
just giving some examples.
Yeah, of course.
But no,
there's something for every budget range.
So actually,
whilst we don't gloss over the
building fundamentals and
we really do make sure that
we're making lots of space
for all of that,
all of the important kind
of structure of your house
and the performance of the property.
actually all those things
that are going to make a
difference to how you live in the space,
actually it goes all the
way through from affordable
solutions up into some high-end stuff.
Yeah, it's all covered,
so it's accessible from a
financial perspective to a
broad amount of people,
but also we're talking
about that physical
accessibility now or in the
future as well.
So many considerations, like you say,
but really it's about
creating a customised,
tailored home to you and
your family's needs.
That's what we're all about
and doing it in a
sustainable way as well.
Yeah.
There's so much to consider, but, you know,
you don't want to overwhelm people.
That's what the shows are for, though.
It's a chance for people to
actually get that research
in and spend a bit of time
thinking about different potential ideas.
Yes.
and running them past experts.
So like Rob, for instance,
being able to chat
one-to-one is so valuable
for people and it's doing it early.
And that's something I've
picked up from my years of
working here is, you know,
it's get that research done,
get the planning and the
design options in early and
you need to be able to chat.
Which episode two,
we're going into a lot more
detail on that, aren't we?
But I remember different industries,
but when I used to be an
exhibitor at events,
and one of the big things is that...
you are not there to
necessarily sell at the exhibition.
You are not necessarily
going there to buy as an
attendee at that point.
But what you've got is this
mass of people to go and look.
And we've been touching on
this whole mass of
different areas and you
wander around and you kind of go, oh yeah,
that's something I hadn't thought of.
That's something I didn't
even know existed.
And you've now got a list of
things that you want to go
and investigate more,
not necessarily on that day.
And what I love about this
place is it means that you can go away
And then you can go, right,
I now need to go and look
into that in more detail
that I hadn't thought of.
I need to come here and see this.
Yeah, if you reach that point of overload,
we're not here for three days.
That's relevant, that's relevant,
that's relevant.
We do have a little bit of
an ingenious system as well
to help you navigate that
kind of information overload,
which you could experience
where there's so much at your fingertips.
um so actually our front of
house team when you when
you come in will will get
you set up with a uh a
little scanner which you
can have uh wear around
your neck and actually what
you can then do is you can
as you come to each stand
uh or each of our
exhibitors if you want to
be contacted by one of those exhibitors
If you want, I'll send me a brochure,
scan this barcode,
give me a call about this.
I don't have to walk out with a bag.
So you don't have to be making this.
Not very sustainable.
People can do whatever works for you.
If making a list works for you, great.
But this is helping people
to navigate that and not
having to make all these
notes and remember
everything that you've seen
throughout the day.
And also it's putting it in
your hands as the visitor.
So you're not being kind of,
you're not just being,
contacted by people that you
haven't asked you know it's
kind of saying oh I
specifically want a phone
call about this yeah so
you're only getting
information if you've asked
for it it's specific to
what you're looking for and
it helps you manage where
you you know you could have
an infinite number of those
things throughout the day
that you think are useful
so you could end up with a
very long list that you're
leaving with actually
It's going to help you kind
of digest that.
Exactly.
I think the key phrase that
always sticks with me with
events like that is that
it's the start of the conversations.
It's not the full conversation.
Oh, most definitely.
Most definitely.
We like this because we also
find that people come here
at different times in their journey.
Absolutely.
So they come in, like,
people I meet and say,
I've come here I'm thinking
about building my own house
but don't you come to the
right place and then start
giving them some pointers
of things of what they need
to think about what needs
to look for so on so forth
and then we have people
who've come back a third a
fourth time I said all
right now we've done all
this now we're really
really interested in this
and because what you're
trying to do is you're
trying to get people to
think in the right way for
planning yeah your trouble is that
It's like in terms of heating,
because I want to talk about heating.
No, before you think about heating,
you've got to think about the fabric.
You've got to keep the heating in.
You've got to think about
the energy you're using.
So you've got to start there
before you think about the heating.
There's no good thinking
about the end bit before we
start about the beginning
or the middle bit.
And so it's trying to
educate people of the right
process and the way to go
through that process of renovating,
extending, building a new house.
And that's why this place is
so good because there's
everybody throughout that
whole journey here.
just follow me,
from finding land to
planning consultants to all
the way through to
interiors and furnishes.
And then what's your door
knocker going to look like?
So it's everything all the way through.
And it's really quite pleasant sometimes.
You see people going,
I've seen you before.
they said yeah we came here
a couple of months ago and
thank you for what you told
us now we want to ask you
questions on this because
they've got a little bit
further exactly yeah
exactly it's so rewarding
isn't it it is you can
actually see their progress
as they come back and visit
center each point it's
fascinating and sometimes I wish I think
can I come and see your house now?
It's finished.
They'd almost want to do that.
A hundred percent, I can imagine.
And I think it's great that
we're so involved on that process,
on their journey to help
them fulfil their dreams.
And I think it's really
fascinating and I really,
really enjoy it because of that.
It's a real good buzz because of that.
And people, I think,
really feel confident here because it's,
as I said before,
it's not about the selling.
It's more of an educational facility.
And I can interview,
so it's almost like a
physical library of building stuff.
And you can see everything
from the ground foundations,
even different types of
grounded foundations,
up to roof tiles and
everything in between.
I think because of that
being such a wonderful
resource because the thing
is that also um I've been
involved in buildings
through all my working life
so you know I have you know
a lot of spatial awareness
and feeling of space and
how that all works and and
the tangibility of
different systems but if
you're not in that life
it's very hard sometimes to
see that if you look
pictures on a on a brochure
or pictures on the internet
it's much more difficult to
comprehend the implications
where if you can stand
there in front of a wall
and product and go, oh,
that's what it's like.
And we've got these
wonderful examples of
different sort of build up
of wall structures that
people can actually see it and go,
if I go down this route, it's that thick.
And they can actually
visualize and understand it.
And it's so much better for
people to do that.
And we are human beings.
We need to have that
interaction also with other
human beings to understand it far better.
Yes,
you can read anything you like off the
internet.
But you never get the whole picture.
But here you do.
I think you've really hit
the nail on the head there.
All the educational exhibits
are so valuable.
We do a lot of our training
courses in person.
When you do your renovation course,
let's actually go and do a
tour of the renovation
house to bring that theory
to life and visualise it.
So it's not just stay in the auditorium.
No, no, no.
So what we do is we go
through all the theories that work.
And there's lots of
questions and answers as
you go through the course.
And then when you finish,
we come down and have a
walk around the renovation house and say,
you remember I said about this?
Well, here's your example.
And they look at this, this, and this.
Remember I said about this?
Look at this, this, and this.
And they go, oh, yes,
because it kind of brings it to life.
Almost feels unfair that
you're able to do that, to be honest.
It's too good.
All those other trainings
haven't got that wonderful.
But I mean,
I've got to say is that the one thing,
from my sort of commercial
mind that I love about this
place is that you could
easily have fallen into the
trap of just going right
then let's get all these
exhibitors of all these
different things like you
say it's all in one place
and that's it and it's like
no a the whole mentality
here is that they're there
you know the exhibitors
that are here to educate
and to be there to support
people but the fact that
there's all this non-stop
education these courses
this interaction yeah
the interactive exhibits
themselves means that it's like, no,
actually, it's not.
It's to really help people.
And like you say,
is that you don't know what
step people are on the journey.
Are they just thinking about it?
They will have a whole
different set of questions
and things that will catch
their attention to someone
that's further along and everything else.
And it's just all here.
I think a really nice way to
summarise what we do,
it's our three customer promises.
So informing,
inspiring and offering impartial advice.
So those are the three
things that we want to do.
So whether you're visiting
the centre generally on any
of our days in which we're open,
so Tuesday through to Sunday,
take your pick.
Or whether it's one of the
shows like the October show
that's coming up or another
workshop or a course.
So that's what we're doing
throughout all of our events.
Any offering,
it's those three key promises
that we're trying.
I do like that.
I really like it.
I'm going to move on in a
second to go into the,
I know we've largely been
talking about it already,
but the October show in a
bit more detail.
But before I do,
I just want to cover one
other element of NSPRC.
it's employee owned.
Now,
this was something that came about not
that many years ago,
and you guys have
absolutely embraced that.
Tell us about that, Katie.
So yes,
we were originally the centre
wasn't employee owned.
So the doors have been open
since two thousand and seven.
We've only been employee
owned since twenty fourteen.
I'm saying only I'm hearing
that come up my mouth.
We've actually just
celebrated ten years of
employee ownership.
Yeah,
it's just such a wonderful culture here.
You know, it feels like everyone
is able to have their say
and weigh in on how things have run here,
how we operate.
It's just a really wonderful
business structure, I think.
I think I can play my new guy card.
I'm still like six months in.
I think that it's got
another six months on it
before it expires, I think,
my new guy card.
But I can bring that
perspective of joining the team
um and joining this
community and actually
really seeing and feeling
the benefit of that that
real sense of everybody is
not only metaphorically
invested they're literally
invested everyone's an
employee owner that works
within the specific msbrt
team and the investment in
in those three eyes and in
the whole goal of the center
It's just, you can't miss it.
It's clear to see and it
comes through in the
culture of the place and it
comes through in the
experience of when you just
come here for a chat and
you have a cup of tea and
you get to speak to members
of the team about your project.
There's a lovely cafe here, by the way.
I'm on commission for cups of tea.
Everyone comes to work
with their business owner
hat on is a nice way of
thinking about it.
Everyone's just that little
bit more invested in how
things are run and what we do.
And I think we're all really
proud of our offerings and what we do.
Which, you know, Rob,
coming from the outside
with something that you've
been very passionate about for, I mean,
you can say for twenty
years because you just said
that the sustainable tech
was coming out then and you
were an early adopter and all of that.
you've seen that not only
are they really pushing
this and enabling you to
educate people and get involved,
but to see that level of
pride from it being employee owned.
Absolutely.
Absolutely.
And I always, I like,
I love coming in for several reasons.
One is these guys,
just real friendly bunch.
Okay.
It's a bit like walking into a family.
Okay.
You come in and meet with
the girls on the counter.
And quite often as I get out of my car,
walk up,
my cup of coffee's on the counter
waiting for me.
You know, can't grumble that.
I used to have a bar like that.
I think we're similar vintage.
But anyway, I digress.
But it's just a real nice warm atmosphere.
You know, everybody's friendly,
everybody's welcoming,
everybody's supportive.
And everybody helps each other out.
So even though I'm not an employee,
I'm a sort of a part-timer, basically.
I think my part-timing is
increasing over the years.
I mean, I've been involved here
six years seven years I
would say so yeah similar
to me seven years I think
but gradually I started off
just doing just the odd
show and then gradually the
last couple years of being
more and more and more
involved which is great and
I do see my future as being
more involved every time
time goes on but no it's a
great place to work great
atmosphere and what I like
about it say is is the
helping people you know
like people send away going
great that's fantastic
thanks for your help and
they walk away with a smile
on their face and I think
that's great and I feel
that it's a very positive
attitude in the place because of that
I think because people come here to learn,
to understand, to gain information.
And it's even great
sometimes you come to
people who unfortunately
have woe stories where
things haven't gone right
for one reason or another.
And they're the ones that
have more difficult conversations.
And sometimes you do have to
have a little bit more
difficult conversation with
someone and say, look, I'm sorry,
but you've got to stop what you're doing,
re-evaluate and start again.
And we do that as well.
But overall,
I think it's just this great
positive attitude.
Yeah, you're not yes people, you are.
No.
It is that impartial advice.
It's not telling you what
you want to hear necessarily.
It's making sure it's what's
good for your project.
That's such a good point, actually.
We talk a lot about planning
your perfect home,
but things aren't always
perfect along the way.
And you need that support.
It's so vital to have that.
Because the unknown is the worst bit,
isn't it?
Even if you've got a rocky road to go,
at least if you know the
direction of that rocky road,
it makes it a little bit more manageable.
I feel like I was Wizard of
Oz or something.
crikey what the film
references well no we'll
keep going we'll keep going
right that I just say I
love the idea that um rob
has just said how friendly
the front of house team are
and I'm just imagining
actually every time he's
come in he's just pinched
k's cup of coffee yeah yeah
and I have to back up that
you're absolutely right on
that you know the front of desk
is quite mad is that Tom and
I walk in and they go, ah,
Chris from Visual PR,
you're going to be doing
that show with us soon, aren't you?
And I'm like,
How did they know that?
Of course they know who you are.
So involved.
It's lovely to feel that, isn't it?
It is.
We can get the cheers
reference in as well.
Everybody knows your name and all of that.
Right.
I'm going to change tack to
bring this episode to its climax,
which is going to be based
on the show to make sure
we've got all the
information out there for
you because it is the
eleventh and twelfth of October.
But we've got the big show coming up.
See,
I said that we should have all changed
seats in that little break there,
but they wouldn't let me do it.
And Tom doesn't want us
messing about with audio
and things like that.
But we are in the same place.
Just cuts back to us all
tripping over each other.
Yeah, it's like,
I need to lengthen the clip.
No, see, what we could have done, Steve,
was like, you know, take a chair away.
I was pressed it up.
I've lost out.
I've lost out.
Yeah, I don't count.
Magical chairs, what's all, you know.
Right, this year,
I call it the Autumn Show.
Is that another sort of sub,
an unofficial name for it?
Yeah, yeah.
So this edition,
we usually refer to them as editions of.
So we have the Autumn
Edition and then our other show.
So we're getting a bit ahead of ourselves,
but the January show we
call the Winter Edition.
Okay.
And then we sort of have the
Spring Summer Edition.
Okay.
The official title, of course,
is the National Self-Build
and Renovation Show,
October the eleventh and the twelfth.
It's a Friday and a Saturday.
What's it all about is the big question.
I mean,
it's fairly obvious and we've been
kind of touching on it.
But is there anything that
we haven't covered that's
worth emphasising about this show?
Well, I think to kick things off, really,
the obvious difference is about, you know,
why is it worth attending a show day?
If you've already been to the centre,
you know,
what are the additional
offerings that we have?
So really,
the three shows that we do a year,
I think that's where the
centre is in all its glory,
because we've invited all
of our exhibiting partners
to come down and have a
presence on their stand.
You know, we've got,
so not only have we got
loads and loads of people
here available for you to chat with,
so any manufacturers,
suppliers that have a stand
in the trade village.
We haven't actually
mentioned our professional services hub,
which is actually
underneath us as we're speaking.
We've got companies.
You're there.
Yeah, they're all down there.
So the companies that
exhibit underneath us are
more sort of architects, designers,
planners.
They don't have products
that you could go up and
look at on a stand,
but they offer services.
So we invite people from the
Trade Village and also the
Professional Services Hub to come down
And a lot of those
exhibitors are going to be doing talks.
So we mentioned the theatres earlier,
the Build It Theatre and
Sustainability Theatre.
So all day we've got talks
happening on a range of subjects,
which I'm sure we'll discuss in a minute.
We're offering tours of New Build Journey,
which I sort of mentioned earlier,
the building site.
So we start there and we
work all the way round.
So
from planning, site setup,
all the way through to finishes.
And then we've got the
renovation health tour as well,
haven't we?
We've got the one-to-one
appointment offerings.
So this is where you can sit
down with a specific expert.
So say you're interested in planning.
You could go and sit down
for twenty minutes
completely free with a
planning expert and just
talk about whatever you
want to do with your project,
any concerns, queries,
whatever stage you're at.
um and then yeah I think
those are probably the key
things really yeah it's
really the sense of firing
on all cylinders isn't it
so if you have come on your
average day um actually
what you would have found
is rob or one of our other
experts is is on the help desk
and there to support you
with any general queries,
but actually the majority
of our exhibits and trade
stands at that point are
kind of on self-service mode.
Although there may be the
odd exhibitor who's chosen
to be there that day,
maybe to have chats with people,
but actually what you'll
see is the trade village is bustling with
with all our exhibitors.
So this is the kind of top
end of the... They're there.
Yeah, this is us firing on our cylinders.
This is actually... There's
talks scheduled in both the
theatres throughout the day
that you can pick and choose from.
So actually,
if you do want to come both days,
there's going to be
different things to hear throughout.
You know,
it's not just a repeat of the same day.
I was going to ask you that.
Yeah,
so I don't want to get into too much
detail.
No, no.
And especially as episode...
I know we're going to go
into some detail.
Episode three will be going.
one of the rules yeah is
that we're going to go into
the details of the time we
can give a little bit of a
flavor of it and I think
really that is we've got to
tease a little bit so kind
of the general idea is that
the build it theater which
is our biggest uh biggest
exhibition space down down
the far end um actually you
kind of get your essential
journey in there so that's
where the day is structured
everything from kind of
finding land building
systems financing funding
all the essentials that you
will need for for a
self-build or for a renovation
you can cut you could go and
sit in there all day if you
wanted to and just absorb
that and actually this is
it's just a free amazing
course really because this
this event even though
we're firing all cylinders
it's still free so you can
come along and you're still
getting the absolute best
of the center and I've just
readmission and I've just
put the web link up on the
screen there that you can
go to actually I'm going to
bring it off because I'm
going to put it in the chat
from from our angle um so that
you can click that link get
your free tickets to be
able to come that's free in
advance isn't it free in
advance that's right yeah
it needs a pre-book so if
you follow the link that's
where you can get your free
tickets because on the day
it costs twelve pounds yes
so it is worth it
definitely uh everybody I'm
just gonna apologies I
forgot that I'm a man I
can't multitask that's
right I'll I'll talk a bit
more while you go so it
seems like the build it
fears a little bit
But the Sustainability
Theatre is where you'll
actually hear from a number
of our experts and exhibitors.
And they're going to be
talking about a whole range of things,
whether that's kind of insulation,
whether that's different
tech implementation from heat pumps,
mechanical heat ventilation recovery,
solar and battery storage,
roof planning systems,
anything you can think of.
There's loads of different
topics in there that are going to be,
okay,
here's forty-five minutes on this
topic specifically that you
can come and listen and ask questions.
And actually maybe that's
one of the experts you
might want to go and have a
bespoke one-on-one chat with afterwards.
But we've also got a few,
between the two theatres,
a few of the presentations
are actually panels.
So actually where you
wouldn't just hear from one
speaker at a time.
but you'll actually get a
range of opinions within
just one um one
conversation so it's great
so you actually you can
have a bit of a q a session
where you might ask your
specific question um and
whether that's about heat
and energy whether that
could be um our passive
house panel whether it's
our battle of the building
systems where you're
deciding what the structure of your
of your property could be
yeah actually you can hear
from people who maybe have
their own thoughts about
well I think this is the
best because this I think
this is the best because
this and you can hear those
pros and cons within the
same conversation so
there's loads of great
stuff there weighing it up
as well for your own
individual project your own
individual needs and once
you're hearing lots of
different thoughts you can
say well that sounds about
right for me you know and it's it's
I think it's quite
empowering to hear different options.
It's not just you're being
sold to from one company.
It's you've got this nice broad range.
Because we're all going to
have our own nuances, aren't we?
And so you need to hear that to make it go,
that's what resonates.
And there isn't a right way to do it.
Oh,
I was going to say there's not a right
and wrong way.
There probably are wrong ways to do it.
Yeah, maybe.
The wrong way.
But there is not one right.
way to do anything.
There's always different
approaches to take.
And Rob, you host a lot of those panels,
don't you?
I do.
I play MC.
And sometimes it's quite interesting,
actually, because you get the audience,
and they've been there all day,
and then the first person
wants to put their hand up,
and they're trying to get
someone to interact or ask a question.
And only once one person does,
and somebody else does,
and somebody else does.
And it's great.
um and getting and what's
quite nice in those little
panel situations because we
have differing opinions of
the experts we bring with
us um and there can be a
little bit of sort of
interaction between them
agreeing on the things
because every now and again
some will throw up a really
really good question again
again and then sometimes
it's really quite
interesting because like we
haven't thought about that
and so you know and the one
thing I would say to people
is that don't think any
question is a silly question yeah okay
really it's really really
important thing don't and
don't think put your hand
up saying oh my god if I
ask this question I'm going
to be ridiculed okay that's
not how it works okay we're
not we're not there to
laugh at anybody you know
there is no silly question
because the thing is if you
don't know you don't know
okay and that's what's
important a lot of people
unfortunately don't know
what they don't know yeah
that's why coming here is
so so useful but yes never
be never be concerned am I
going to ask a silly question
But taking that a step further then,
if someone is still,
and there's plenty of
people in this bucket that still go, no,
I still don't want to ask that publicly,
they've got the ability to
ask those questions privately afterwards.
Of course they have, yes.
Of course they have.
And we actually have that
sometimes where someone's
sort of shutting up a shop
and someone will come up
and have a private
conversation with somebody.
And that's absolutely fine.
That's absolutely fine.
Because generally what we do
is when the show,
when the presentations finish,
the show doesn't finish,
if that makes sense.
So there's a little bit of
leeway afterwards.
But if you want to go and
grab somebody and have a
sort of one-to-one with them,
by all means do so.
Because I understand that
some people do not feel
comfortable wanting to put
their hand up in an
auditorium for people.
In essence,
he doesn't disappear into his
green room and whatever
rider he's demanding at this time,
he's still available for conversation.
We all are.
We keep you so busy during those show days,
Rob.
You're here, there and everywhere.
There are days, but it's great.
I get here at half past
eight and some of my watchers are like,
half past five, where have they gone?
And I gather the girls are wonderful.
I've been sat in it and
they've come and brought me
a cup of coffee and said,
we haven't had one for a while.
Yeah, you don't get the chance.
They're angels.
They really are.
What should people bring with them?
Are there any tips?
I don't know how good a
question that is or not.
It is a good question, actually.
So it depends where you are
in your journey.
Yeah.
Okay.
So I think what's important
is to try and set some basics.
What are you looking for?
So don't come here and go, I don't know.
So come here with at least
some sort of ground ideas,
the kind of things which
you're interested in,
the kind of things which
are your passions, your ideas.
Because you can then
immediately plug into somebody.
Now, so for example,
if you were going to say,
I want to build an extension on my house,
go, great.
What's it going to be like?
Because if you've got even
some rudimentary sketches,
then you can go to an
architect who's here and spend sort of,
sort of, fifteen,
twenty minutes with them, free of charge,
to get some feedback on it.
Likewise,
if you want to build yourself a new house,
well, first of all, where is very,
very important in terms of
looking for plots.
but also what kind of size,
what kind of shape,
what kind of thing do you want to have,
I think.
So doing a bit of research
yourself before you come
here with some ideas that you can,
so when you can come and
have a conversation,
you can have a meaningful conversation.
But not with all the answers.
No, no, no, no, no, no.
Not at all.
Something to start with.
Yeah.
And an open mind thereafter.
Oh, my God, yes.
You must have an open mind.
Because that will then take
you down the different routes to go, oh,
I had no intention I was
going to go and speak to those people.
Absolutely.
But now I realise I do need it.
Absolutely.
So when it's like, for example,
when you're thinking about
building a house,
think about roughly how big you want it.
OK?
What kind of look at the
house you may be thinking
about wanting to have.
In terms of what you're building out of,
that's why this place is so brilliant,
because there's so much
information to give you a
direction to do that.
But come here with an open mind.
It's really, really important,
because then you'll get so
much more out of it.
But having a starting point, I think,
is important,
because then you can have
more meaningful
conversations with any of
the experts that are here.
again it's bringing that
visualization into it yes
because you know you're not
just it's not even just
having a blank piece of
paper it's you know if if
you're just chatting it's
quite hard to articulate it
sometimes I think if you've
got something bring
photographs so for example
if you're renovating or
want to extend the existing
house bring photographs you
know on your phone
If that's the least what you do, do that.
So people are going to go, oh, yeah,
I can see that now.
And it starts,
it's because a picture
speaks a thousand words.
Okay.
So if you can bring any
information with you,
and we have actually had
people who sort of bring a
whole plastic bag full of
plans and start bringing
them all out on the table,
which is great.
Yeah.
So to that degree,
or someone just got their
phone out and say, well,
this is what the house looks like,
you know, which is fine.
But bring something.
That's true as well, isn't it?
Just having things on your phone as well.
I mean,
it's not just having actual
physical plans or blueprints.
Well, you might not be that far along.
Exactly.
If you have it, bring it.
Even if they rock up with
the Martin Luther, I have a dream,
you know, it's still the start, isn't it?
I think the thing is,
a lot of our businesses who
come thinking about their projects,
whether it's a self-build
or a renovation,
A lot of the time,
it's a couple that's coming, right?
So actually,
are you even on the same page
with each other, right?
So I think a really useful
exercise to do pre-coming
to visit us for the first time.
Yeah, you almost need it sometimes.
You know,
it's just thinking about a really
useful exercise to do
before coming along for the first time.
Maybe get together, the two of you,
whoever's going to be
involved in this decision-making,
whoever's going to be living there,
What are your wants and your
needs for this project?
And that can be just one
sheet of paper with wants
and needs on it.
And if you've got that,
that's going to help you
articulate what you must
have and what you would like to have.
I'm still loving the idea
that there's so much here
and so much knowledge here
that you could actually get
here and find both.
There is the ability to have
both of our ideas and preferences.
within the same build anyways.
Not always, I know.
But actually,
it might help you visualize that,
because if you're trying to
have that conversation
without any visual aids, actually,
if you come along here,
you've got lots of things that you can,
to use Rob's phrasing,
to poke and prod and to look at.
Actually, you can make it real.
A question then, Caden.
I don't know whether you
know the answer to this or
whether it's a silly question.
You come along,
you book for free tickets for the Friday,
and so much happens,
so many conversations that
you now want to come back
for the Saturday.
Of course, yeah.
Even if you miss the Friday,
so say if you couldn't
attend on the Friday,
you could always come on the Saturday.
We can just carry a book in a bit.
But what we hope will happen
is that you do come on the
Friday and the Saturday, you know,
if there's so much going on.
But does that become a, I've pre-booked,
and I don't know actually
whether you pre-book,
I think you do pre-book for
one of the days.
Yeah.
And you go,
I want to come back now tomorrow.
Does that become a pay on
the door on the Saturday?
No, no, it wouldn't be the case, no.
I didn't think it would be,
but I was going to ask that question.
It's like we were saying earlier,
a lot of people do actually
stay at hotels or they're locals,
so they think, oh,
I can just come back the
next day if they want to
follow up on some conversations.
I can imagine that would happen a lot.
It does, it does.
Or just attend the talks.
Yeah,
we do quite often see people here for
the two days.
and make sure that you tune
in what would it be it'd be
in four weeks time for
episode three where we're
going to go into detail on
that timetable um and we'll
pick out some of the key
things that you won't want
to miss and all of that
sort of stuff um and which
is why we're kind of almost
just teasing this at the
moment is that we're just
trying to let you know and
on that subject is there
anything new or topical in this
Yeah,
so I would say we actually just run a
survey every year, don't we,
of our visitors about
people running their own
projects to understand all
things about how has the
project gone or what are
the challenges they're facing,
what's gone really well.
We're actually waiting for very,
very soon to have the latest one.
But if we defer to the
twenty twenty three stats,
um and I think this will
probably still still be the
case today actually the
biggest challenge that
people see is with planning
and that's almost the
biggest bottleneck for
people um but actually
what's really encouraging
about that at the moment
fingers crossed it's
delivered is that we have a
new government who are making
I don't know if I'll say promises,
but they're making noises
in the right direction
around planning reform and
around actually making
that... Just don't dig us a hole now,
whatever you do.
Don't dig us a hole.
They can dig themselves a hole.
There's a stand over there
about digging holes, I'm sure.
It seems to be making noises
in the right direction
around being able to
actually set up planning
authority that's not going
to be such a bottleneck.
Now, obviously that needs to be delivered,
but
To even be saying about
those things and aiming to
do those things I think is
really positive.
So hopefully that number one
kind of challenge and
bottleneck that our
self-builders particularly
are seeing actually is
great to unblock that.
So fingers crossed.
agreed uh we've got I've got
stream along the bottom
here is the web address
again plus I've put it in
the chat although I've
noticed that it's only gone
on to the youtube and
facebook um but you can go
in the episode description
it should have the link to
the to the website
And it's got in the events page.
And you'll find this
particular event for the
eleventh and twelfth of October.
And you can book tickets, get them booked.
Nice.
They're completely free if
you do it that way.
Sorry, guys,
but I'm trying to encourage
people to do that rather than go ahead.
You do.
I know you do.
And come along, get those questions ready.
As I said, we will go into more detail.
Is there anything else that
we want to cover?
I'll pick about three.
Free parking,
you can't underestimate how good it is.
For those who don't know,
if you've ever come even past the NSBRC,
you'll see that out the
front there's parking and
you might kind of go, well,
that's kind of the same as most offices.
a finite amount there no out
the back just massive now
imagine that if this as you
say if this was a warehouse
and it does have the
loading bay uh doors there
doesn't it is that trucks
would be out there and and
everything that's the kind
of space that's out the
back is just yeah have you
got a number for how many
cars that takes oh gosh I'm
not not off the top of my
head yeah I've never loved
it depends how well they
park yeah a lot hundreds
it is it's loads of parking
so get here totally free
parking good yeah you won't
get stung with kind of
hidden hidden fees like
that oh it's free entry but
you have to pay us for
parking it's no it's it's
free um you can do a meal
deal at the cafe you can do
a meal deal yeah the cafe
isn't free but it's
reasonably priced so
actually you can grab some
lunch here as well while
you're here um food and
drinks available throughout
the day um the only things
you would have sorry go on
I was thinking timings as well.
It's from it's nine to five.
I mean,
the centre itself is open till five
thirty.
The show runs from nine until five.
Yeah.
So, yeah, it's an all day event.
So, yeah,
I think we've tried to make it as
easy as possible.
Yeah.
Definitely would always
recommend trying to arrive early.
There's so much on the run out of time.
You can't even get in it first thing.
Yeah.
So, yeah,
you won't need to get here early
to get a parking space
because there are lots of spaces.
But get here as if there was less parking.
That's what I would say.
Yeah, good idea.
And get the conversations going.
Plus, as I say, in episode three,
we'll go through the
timetable of the different
presentations that are on with them.
They, of course,
have times and you want to
make sure you get them.
Key things, though, show highlights,
huge range of independent experts,
one to one expert consultations.
Guided tours of the NSBRC's
fantastic life-size educational visits.
Three tips that were on the
site were bring your plans,
drawings and sketches,
as you rightly said there, Rob.
Arrive early, as you were just saying.
There's a packed programme of talks, demos,
case studies and tours.
The seminars start at ten.
So the show starts at nine,
the first seminars at ten.
Get settled before that.
Have a look round, grab a drink.
Exactly.
You want plenty of time to browse over.
Two hundred exhibited displays.
And point three is don't be
shy to ask questions.
Many experienced
representatives will be on
hand to answer your
questions and offer support
based on their experience.
And as you rightly said,
there's no daft question.
So get stuck in on it.
It's the best thing to do.
I think that covers all of
the elements of the show.
Yeah.
I think we could keep
talking forever and ever and ever on it,
and especially, and I know, Rob,
that we've only gone into a
bit of detail.
Future episode, I'm sure,
we'll go into more detail
about your specifics.
But the next episode is on
the eighteenth of September.
It will be twelve noon again
is the plan to go live again.
And that one is actually a
meet the experts or should
I say meet some of the experts,
because that will be a
theme that we'll do a number of times.
And we're covering three
core subjects for this one.
And that is funding a project,
finding a plot and planning permission.
I almost feel that we're
going to be skirting over
those to some extent, aren't we?
For what they could be in their own right.
That's the plan.
And who knows?
It could be then that we
establish that we need to
go into even more detail on
one of those on its own.
But watch this space.
I meant to write down who
our guests are for that one,
but I forgot them now.
We've got Tom McSherry from Build Store.
So he'll be giving all the
great financial advice.
So he's a...
Yeah,
he's a wealth of knowledge on that front.
So talking about all sorts of things,
being able to fund
different stages of your project,
making sure the right cash
flow is available at the right time.
And then who else have we got on that one?
Apologies, I meant to... It's all right,
I've got it.
Mark Deeds for planning.
It is Mark Dudes.
You're quite right.
I didn't want to quote
somebody who's on episode three.
But yeah,
Mark Dudes is going to be here
talking about planning.
So again, a wealth of knowledge.
And as I said as well,
that's the number one
challenge people have at the moment.
So having someone like Mark
give you some insight,
some of the inside track is
really useful.
And from the NSBRC side,
we've got Harvey joining us next time.
That's the plan.
You get a rest in two weeks.
Yeah,
he's got a wedding and a honeymoon to
do between now and then.
That's the plan.
We should see what Harvey
turns up for that episode then, won't it?
And then rob you all back
for episode three.
I think that really covers everything.
Thank you to everybody that has watched.
I hope you've enjoyed it.
I've loved being up here.
It's such a great location to be doing it.
You guys will be back for episode three.
We'll be back in episode three.
Plus, as I say, we'll be live.
So it'll be this motley crew for that one.
So Rob, thank you for joining.
It's been an absolute pleasure.
I hope you've enjoyed it.
As I said,
we will be back in two weeks' time.
Now you've seen how it works.
Be prepared to rock up with
some questions as you're watching it.
And it just triggers a
thought or you've got some
experience or your own
thoughts on something.
Do put them on.
It's great to get that
involvement as well.
But if you're now watching this on record,
then we're not live anymore.
then feel free to drop a
line to the guys and ask
those questions that it
maybe conjures up for you
because they're here to let you know.
What's the best way to get hold of?
Is there a generic one?
So we do have a couple of
different email addresses.
Probably the best one,
if you've just got a generic query,
would be our reception at
nsbrc.co.uk or our main phone number,
which you can find on the website, oh,
three, four, five.
four four five five oh I
can't sorry I think it's on
the website it started off
so strong I haven't said it
in so long yeah but even if
you just comment on any of
our socials or anything and
we'll come back to you as
well so that's great and
we'll be live again before
that two weeks is going to
fly exactly thank you so
much for joining us been an
absolute pleasure we'll see you next time