On behalf of the CAC Steering Group I wish all Supporters and our wider Industry colleagues a Healthy New Year. One of our key CAC themes is “by sharing knowledge, promoting best practices, and supporting early resolution methods, we're making the industry more resilient, efficient, and productive”, this is a key driver of our Conference.
The conference is planned for Wednesday 18th March at the Institution of Civil Engineers in Westminster. The key theme of the conference is asking “Why are Clients adopting Conflict Avoidance Methods?”. Anecdotally more Clients are changing methods and we invite the audience to probe deeply.
We are delighted to have 3 confirmed conference Sponsors who are Fenwick Elliot, Resolex, VVB Engineering. We still need more Sponsorship in order to keep attendee costs to a minimum. Please click here for more sponsor information.
Finally, at the end of the year it is timely to give recognition and thanks to all the Working Groups for making such a significant impact through CAC in 2025. The Society would not exist without all the Volunteers and the Steering Group deserves special mention:
CAC Steering Group Members
Len Bunton (President)
Richard Bayfield (Chair)
Jeremy Glover (Vice Chair)
Ed Schryver (Vice Chair)
Iain McIlwee (Treasurer)
Sue Barrett
Ashley Belcher
Stephen Blakey
Martin Burns
Julie Forsyth
Ysella Jago
Jim McCluskey
Richard Bayfield (Chair CAC) 30th December 2025
www.conflctavoidance.org
Draft Conference Programme – Wed 18th March 2026, ICE, Westminster, London
Why are Clients adopting Conflict Avoidance Methods? Sue Barrett (Houses of Parliament Restoration Project), Veronica Flint Williams (Environment Agency)
- What is the attraction of conflict avoidance?
- How to adopt conflict avoidance
- What do the contractors and consultants say?
Conflict Avoidance pre contract: establishing a collaborative culture: Ed Moore (Chief Executive, ResoLex)
- What can be done before there is even a contract?
- Building the team: What is a collaborative culture?
- Using the Conflict Avoidance Toolkit
Amending standard form contracts: do or do not? Anthony Armitage (General Counsel Thirdway, and Head of the Contracts Group for the CAC)
- The do’s and don’ts of amending contracts
- Why do we amend standard forms?
- Is it all the lawyer’s fault?
International Spotlight: what we can learn from infrastructure projects abroad? Jeremy Glover (Fenwick Elliott LLP, Vice President of the CAC)
- Is conflict avoidance simply a UK “thing”?
- What do the funders say? Can they influence performance?
- Dispute boards & conflict avoidance
- Examples form the Middle East
Why should I sign the conflict avoidance pledge? Len Bunton (Bunton Consulting)
- Conflict avoidance in action
- Examples from around the UK
- What’s in it for me? The advantages of Gold & Silver accreditation
What does Gold and Silver status accreditation mean to my organisation? Iain Mcilwee (CEO of Finishes and Interiors Sector, CAC Treasurer), Edward Schryver (Group Commercial Director VVB Engineering , CAC Vice President)
- How do I achieve Gold & silver status
- What are the benefits (and downside) of accreditation?
- How can clients help?
Our challenge to you? How can we change the culture of our industry?
- Interactive final session, putting into practice what we have learnt from our earlier discussions.
- How do we overcome the challenges to implementing conflict avoidance?
- What should the Coalition be doing for the rest of 2026?
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