news: ITP Summer Update
Friday 22nd July 2022
In late June, and for the first time in almost 2.5 years (since the day before the last UK General Election!), the whole ITP team was able to meet-up in person in Nottingham. It was a ‘game of two-halves’, so to speak, with the morning enabling us to take the opportunity to update everyone on topics like…
- Our year to date – which has been busy, but full of interesting projects with fun clients and strong growth in our workloads as demand for ITP’s sustainably-focused approach to transport planning continues to rise.
- New faces at ITP – our continued growth means that having welcomed 12 new staff members in the last year, there were lots of people meeting ‘in real life’ for the first time.
- Missed ‘work-iversaries’ over the last 2.5 years – 9 members of the ITP team had celebrated 5, 10, 15, and even 20-year work anniversaries since we last all met.
- Our latest staff survey results – which revealed above industry-benchmark levels of staff engagement (ITP: 97%, industry average 71%) and enablement (ITP: 85%, industry average 68%), and reflect our ongoing commitment to making ITP a fantastic place to work and grow.
- Newly promoted colleagues – Francesca Smith (Senior Consultant), Jenny Paxton (Principal Consultant), Stuart Clapham (Associate), and Ed Ducker, Stephanie Meyers and Sian Fox (All Associate Directors) were all heartily congratulated and are now ably settling into these roles.
- Looking forward to our 25th anniversary (in 2023) – this next milestone presents an opportunity to reconsider how we, as transport planners, can most effectively help our clients reduce carbon emissions and address wider social challenges that motivate our team.
- Celebrate Nick Ayland’s career – Nick retired after 17.5 years at ITP later that week, and it was a fantastic opportunity for everyone to say ‘thank you’ for the profound impact he had on people’s careers over the years (although we will continue to see plenty of Nick in the future I’m sure).
But it wasn’t all work, work, work - we also took the opportunity to indulge in a spot of Taskmaster-inspired tomfoolery around Nottingham. Ian Stott, Nicola Siddall and I channelled our innermost ‘Little Alex Horne’s, while Denise Faber stepped-up to play the Taskmaster role and (brutally, at times!) award scores and ‘marks for effort’ to the competing teams in relation to the afternoon’s tasks. Amongst other things, these included:
- Bringing your most surprising (and expendable) item of headgear (with bonus points for all-day adornment!).
- Getting as far from the Broadway Cinema in Nottingham (our venue for the day) in 45 minutes, as cost-effectively as possible.
- Making a trailer for ‘ITP the Movie’ in just 30 minutes.
- Taking the best team photo with Robin Hood at exactly 3pm.
- Making the highest tower out of old ITP marketing materials that were typically unsuitable for the task at hand
Much silliness ensued, and the winners were largely incidental by the time we were trying to work the scores out in the bar while Taskmaster Denise passed judgement on everyone’s documented efforts that afternoon. The event reminded us all of the importance of spending time with each other, and our clients, which many of us have been enjoying in ITP’s offices and meeting rooms since they reopened fully earlier this year.
Enjoy the remainder of the summer weather (which, unusually, many of us here in the UK wish was a touch cooler just now), and we continue to look forward to working with our clients and collaborators in the remainder of 2022, and beyond! I am sure the positivity and enthusiasm from this day will carry forward into our current and future projects over the coming months.
Neil Taylor
ITP’s Managing Director / Little Alex Horne