GIIA Annual Conference Highlights 2022

The afternoon kicked off with our CEO Lawrence Slade setting out the challenges facing members as they look to find the right opportunities in a global landscape beset by high inflation, political instability and high borrowing costs.

We then moved to our first expert panel, focussed on resilience, where Professor Jim Hall and representatives from Ashurst, Arup and IFM Investors talked through approaches to risk analysis, financial versus physical resilience and the interplay between tech and long-term preservation of assets.    

Next up was a fascinating speech from, and lively Q&A with, National Infrastructure Commission Chairman Sir John Armitt. He covered priority areas for the NICs next major assessment of UK networks, barriers to project delivery and the scale of investment needed to make net zero a reality.    

That lead us on to our second expert panel, themed around the journey to net zero. Representatives from KPMG, Aviva, Macquarie, Eurelectric and Thames Water debated how best to turn ambition into delivery, policy barriers to change, and the practicalities of delivering strategies over decades in-line with national and global emissions targets.

And finally, we were treated to an in-depth assessment of geopolitics and the global investing landscape in the round from former Business Secretary and EU Trade Commissioner Lord Peter Mandelson.  

With more than 100 members and stakeholders in attendance, this year’s conference was our most successful to date, and marked a great return to in-person knowledge-sharing and networking following two years of pandemic disruption.  

A huge thank you to all those who attended, and a special thank you to our brilliant event sponsors Ashurst and KPMG.