One of the industry’s foremost fire safety engineers and a top financial expert have been announced as twin keynote speakers for this year’s BESA Annual Conference on 22 October.
Dr Barbara Lane was appointed as the first independent chair of the Building Advisory Committee within the Building Safety Regulator (BSR) earlier this year. She is director and fellow of Fire Safety Engineering at Ove Arup and Partners.
Andrew Palmer is executive editor of The Economist and oversees its business strategy and products. He also writes the Bartleby column which covers workplace matters, and hosts Boss Class, the internationally renowned publication’s management podcast.
These two leading experts in their fields will set the tone for the packed one-day programme which is being held at The Brewery, London for the third year in a row ahead of the Association’s annual Industry Awards that will take place at the same venue in the evening.
The programme focuses heavily on how building engineering firms can turn legal and technical compliance into strategic business advantage by embracing the growing building safety culture overseen by the Regulator while also adapting to challenging economic conditions.
The overall theme is ‘Beyond Compliance’: Raising Standards, Proving Competence, Delivering Better Buildings and the conference, which is sponsored by Mitsubishi Electric, will provide a variety of routes for "going further than just complying with legislation” to secure long-term business growth for all building engineering supply chain firms.
Tighten enforcement
Dr Lane played a key role in the aftermath of the Grenfell fire and made regular appearances during the public inquiry between 2017 and 2024. As chair of the advisory committee, she will support the BSR in its efforts to tighten enforcement and improve safety standards.
She is an expert in fire safety engineering and graduated from Trinity College Dublin in 1992 before completing her PhD at the University of Edinburgh in 1997. She is the leader of the Applied Innovation and Technology Group at Arup and was made a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering in 2016 for services to fire safety engineering.
Palmer joined The Economist as management correspondent in February 2007 and has served as Britain editor, business-affairs editor, head of the data team, Americas editor, finance editor and banking correspondent.
His economic analysis will provide valuable insights to BESA Conference delegates many of whom are trying to run businesses against a backdrop of growing cost and risk pressures. There will also be several sessions focused on investment in competence, quality and resilience to ensure business reputation and the delivery of safer, better-performing buildings.
Product innovation will also be under the spotlight during the day, and this element of the event is sponsored by indoor air quality specialist airo. A quick-fire series of presentations following the ‘PechaKucha’ seven-minute format will also focus on BESA’s growing library of technical standards with focused Q&A to follow.
There are also two CPD theatres sponsored by the BESA Academy and the whole conference is fully CPD certified.
There will be key sessions focused on wider business challenges such as competence strategies that employers can defend in the face of increased legislative scrutiny; the risks of becoming an ‘inadvertent designer’ under the Building Safety Act, and how to thrive and stay profitable in a high cost, high compliance environment.
The BESA Conference 2026 will also examine how net zero, technical best practice and AI are reshaping the future of the building engineering sector. A panel made up of senior figures from the firms featured in this year’s Top 30 Contractors’ Report will also examine key growth areas such as data centres, healthcare, defence and public sector upgrades.
There will be the usual heavy focus on skills and recruitment with a WorldSkills UK Training Room taking pride of place for the first time. This will be a dedicated technical learning space offering accessible and practical sessions for all conference attendees.
The room is designed to support the development and preparation of this year’s WorldSkills UK competitors, but the content will also be relevant, engaging, and beneficial for anyone interested in building engineering services and related technologies.
“Once again we will be challenging our delegates to consider how we address some of the biggest issues we face while also offering them specific practical tools to help them in their day-to-day working lives,” said BESA’s senior group events and partnership manager Charlie Ward.
“We are delighted to have secured two such eminent keynote speakers who will provide fascinating insights into the worlds of building safety and market economics. This is another example of the value BESA is always looking to deliver in support of greater industry competence, compliance and business growth,” she added.
Tickets to the Conference are available now from the BESA Conference website.