Introduction

I’m fortunate to have been asked to tour Arup’s global regions to share some recent work we’ve been doing in London on a new service offering for the emerging Existing Buildings market.

The trip will take me around the world in just under a month, as in addition to spending around two days in each office I visit I’ve also taken some annual leave to extend my trip and try to see and learn about each of my destinations. These extra days have also offered flexibility in scheduling local meetings.

So where am I going, and for how long?

17/5: Depart London
18/5 – 22/5: Hong Kong
22/5 – 24/5: Tokyo
25/5 – 27/5: Melbourne
27/5 – 30/5: Sydney
30/5 – 06/6: New York
06/6 – 08/6: LA & drive to San Francisco0
08/6 – 13/6: San Francisco
13/6: Depart San Francisco for London

Sitting at Heathrow Terminal 5B, ready to leave for Hong Kong.

It’s an amazing opportunity that I want to take full advantage of. I'm looking forward to finding out more about how Arup operates around the world, making distant colleagues not-so-distant, sharing and learning about existing buildings - and comparing the interior design of our workspaces!

I’ve never been to any of these cities before, and some have been very high up my list of places to go for a long time. I’m a city person. The countryside is nice and all, but I love the ingenuity that makes a city work, particularly how some solutions grow organically whilst others are carefully designed.

I’ll be compiling separate business notes from my meetings, so plan to keep this blog about my travels and overall impressions of each city - light reading, if you will. Hopefully you’ll find something interesting here.