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YOUNG PROFESSIONALS FORUM

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It is safe to say that the International Federation of Consulting Engineers represents different
things to different people. Within its circle of influence, FIDIC is seen as the gold standard
for the international engineering community. FIDIC publishes contracts that are used aroundthe world as the basis for consulting and construction services, as well as own-operatetransfer type contracts that have become increasingly popular in recent years.
For the engineers and professionals who work in the global, built environment, FIDIC
represents an organization dedicated to improving our ability to provide services to clientsin a competitive, fair manner that appropriately balances risk and reward.

Chairperson’s
message

Companies who work for international funding agencies such as the World Bank, FIDIC
contracts provide them with the knowledge that the contracts, regardless of country, havea common basis for interpretation and execution.
Owners and project developers interested in developing their projects in an internationalsetting, FIDIC can be a “trusted agent”—a source for information, contracts, education andtraining that has been proven since 1913
Of course, talking about FIDIC to people outside of the engineering, planning and associatedprofessions is often an exercise in education. I can’t expect others outside of our profession
to know much about FIDIC. However, it is disappointing when I meet engineers aroundthe world who say they’ve never heard of FIDIC or do not know much about it – especiallywhen those individuals live in countries with active Member Associations or Young Professional
Member Associations.

Richard Stump(YP from USA)We had an extremely successful and well attended FIDIC Conference in Quebec. I’d liketo remind all of us in the Young Professional FIDIC community about the importance of not
only getting involved, but spreading the word about FIDIC to others. Raising the profile
of FIDIC amongst Young Professionals is important – not only will it bring new voices andideas to our global community, but continued involvement from YPs be important to thelong-term lifeblood of our profession.
The events geared specifically to Young Professionals went extremely well. We had twoevening YP Networking Events on Sunday, the YP Open Forum on Monday afternoon, andthe Technical Tour and dinner on Tuesday.
The YP Open Forum included presentations from China, Norway, British Columbia (Canada),
Japan, and a special presentation from Bart van Bueren of DeltaSync, Netherlands. The
technical tour of the River Reclamation project was very well attended – over 65 participants
this year—and it showcased an excellent project that resulted in the improvement of theecology, flood control, and storm water management for the two rivers in Quebec City.
The activities of the conference are available on the YPF homepage on the FIDIC
website…www.fidic.org. Photos and other information from the conference events will be
posted very soon. Upcoming FIDIC conferences in London (2009) and New Delhi (2010)
represent the next opportunities to gather in person and share your thoughts, experiences
and ideas.
On behalf of the YPF Steering Committee, thank you again to those of you who participatedin the Quebec conference. We look forward to seeing the largest YP contingent to datein London!
Richard Stump
Chairperson
Young Professional Forum Steering Committee

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NEWSLETTER
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Jeff Morrison
President ACEC

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YOUNG PROFESSIONALS FORUM

INTERNATIONAL FEDERATION OF CONSULTING ENGINEERS

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It is with great excitement that Canada is hosting the 2008 FIDIC Québec Conference.
In past years, Canadian presence at FIDIC conferences has not been strong, so we are
eager about the chance to network with not only international YPs, but also our YP groups
from Member Associations across the country. This conference will be the first time
Canadian YP Member Associations get to meet in person, which will be great for all of
us. There are currently four active YP groups from Canadian Member Associations
including British Columbia (CEBC), Alberta (CEA), Saskatchewan (CES) and Manitoba(CEM). These associations are under the umbrella of the Association of CanadianEngineering Companies (ACEC), the local conference host along with the Association ofConsulting Engineers Québec.
The last few years have been an exciting time for Canadian engineers, especially in thewestern provinces, where the upcoming 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver
and a boom in the energy sector is driving up the demand for talented Young Professionals.
At the same time a large portion of our senior managers and executives are beginning
to retire – we are seeing unprecedented opportunities to advance through our firms at a
rapid pace, and we need the mentorship of our leaders and peers to guide us along theway.

Mike Homenuke

Conferences such as FIDIC are amongst the best places to meet new people and learn
about the business of consulting engineering. Our YPs are looking forward to developing
new social and business networks, gaining insight in leadership and management skills,
and learning about the challenges that we face not only as engineers, but in the businessof engineering. This year’s conference theme is “A Strong Industry Serving Society”, andfrom what I’ve been told, today’s YPs will indeed provide a strong industry for years tocome.
The Young Professionals activities at the conference will include networking opportunities,
technical tours, a Future Leaders workshop and a meeting of the Young Professionals
Forum, where we will have an opportunity to share and discuss our experiences as YPs
in the global consulting engineering industry. The main conference will include topics on‘Influencing Society’, ‘Delivering Quality’ and ‘Building Strong Organizations’.
On behalf of CEBC and ACEC, welcome to all international YPs participating in the 2008
FIDIC Conference in historic Québec City.
Mike Homenuke, P.Eng.
Chair, Consulting Engineers of BC Young Professionals’ GroupI S S U E

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The FIDIC YPF website - YP Forum

Networking for the consulting engineering
industry's young professionals-----------------------------------------------------Exchange opinions - Share information
Promoting the participation of young professionals in the consulting engineering industry's
activities through opportunities to exchange opinions, concerns and visions.

http://ypf.fidic.ch
The FIDIC YPF website has been updated with all the information you need to know fromYP Training to everything the Steering Committee is involved in!
The YP Forum is easily accessed via the website. Here all aspects that might havereference to you as a Young Professional can be viewed:

Online Discussion Forum
This is a platform where issues touching YPs can be discussed and debated on an open
platform. If you have something you want to discuss with all the YPs in the world, justregister and join the discussion forum.

Newsletter
You can download the latest and previous FIDIC YPF Newsletters filled with news fromaround the world and from the Steering Committee.

National Member Association YP Forums
You can be connected to your local Member Association and see what is happening inother countries.

Training
Find out more about the Young Professionals Management Training Program – a great
program hosted by FIDIC for the future leaders of the world!

FIDIC Conference activities
Find out what wonderful Conference activities has been planned for the YPs at the FIDIC
Conference in Quebec, as well as what will be happening at the Conference that you
should know about!

Business Plan
Take a look at our FIDIC YPF Business Plan and what we are trying to achieve as the
FIDIC YPF Steering Committee.

Steering Committee
Find out who the Steering Committee is and what you have to do to become part of thegreat committee. Happy surfing! If there is anything else you would like to see on the
FIDIC YPF Website, please contact me at Michele.Kruger@bigenafrica.com.

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Learning from Generations - Knowledge Management
This is an abstract of a Young Professional (YP) discussion about knowledge management.
It was held on May 29th 2008 during the EFCA conference in Prague. The basis of the
discussion was a research on Dutch generations.
Each generation has its own characteristics, which managers can use in the governanceof their companies. This could be an important basis for successful projects, unity inculture / consistency, attracting and keeping new employees, satisfied employees,
innovation and future knowledge management (KM). The characteristics and strengthsof the different Dutch generations are summarised in table 1.

Discussion
The discussion about generational learning triggered a lot of new ideas and showed thedifferences between countries. The hierarchy in some countries makes it difficult for YPs
to come in contact with their CEO. Conversely, a French participant, who lived in the
Netherlands, noticed that the door of a Dutch director is always open.
Dutch civil society has always been well organised, resulting in many YP networks in many
sectors. Other countries may have lower levels of professional organizations for YPs.
Regarding the difference between generations, the young professionals of the pragmatic
generation are clearly more focused on specific goals. They want leadership. Most Dutch
directors however, are of the protest generation. They see a clear vision as an end product.
The younger generation perceives this as a beginning for an interactive process to improvethe vision and implement it.
This difference is also shown within EFCA. The discussions in working groups and thecongresses are mainly instrumental and seem to encourage one-way communication.
However, there are (and will be) no European standards for mentality!
When marketing, the consulting engineers are often shy about demonstrating their added
value. Sometimes just the attitude of employees is the bottleneck of innovation, YPs areoften more interested in an open interactive discussion about the social aspects ofentrepreneurship.

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Future Knowledge Management
According to the YPs, knowledge management will change quickly in the near future. As
a result of ´sustainability´ and the lack of sufficient public funding to finance big projects,
Public-privet partnerships (PPPs) and tools like value and systems engineering will enter
the market. Next, the real innovative ideas will come from outside of a company or will
be a smart combination of old traditional fields of knowledge. Therefore more interaction
with end-users, external partners and politicians is needed. And in this interaction KM
can be used for forecasting and introduce the fundamental points of discussion.
The two developments also imply the sharing information instead of keeping it to yourself.
It also implies more freedom of working relationships, such as virtual teams. And forcompanies and employees this implies a monitoring of output instead of attendance, othertimetables than from 9 to 5, and increased mingling of work and private life.

Table 1: Characteristics and Strengths of the Dutch Generations
Generation

Characteristics

Strength

Protest Generation
Born Between 1940
and 1955
Work from 1965

Structure
Idealism
StatusOrganizing support

WisdomOverview
Specific knowledge

Lost Generation
Born Between 1955
and 1970
Work from 1980

Building bridges
Health and Balance
Personal development
Quality

Persistence
Process
Building bridges

Pragmatic Generation
Born Between 1970
and 1985
Work from 1995

Learning by doing
Realistic
Interactive generationof knowledge
Less hierarchy

Internal trendsetters
New knowledge
New ways of working
New structures

Screenagers
Born Between 1985
and 2000
Work from 2010

Sharing information
No hierarchy
Open vision / no barriers
Everything at the sametime

Open vision / nobarriers
Information
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The CESA YPF – A Year in Review

NEWS

CESA

It’s been a fantastic year for the CESA YPF! We’ve gone from having four active provinces(Western Cape, Kwa-Zulu Natal, Gauteng Nort and –South) with very limited funding toseven active provinces (additionally East London, Port Elizabeth and Mpumalanga) withsponsorship from SSI, Bigen Africa, Jeffares & Green, Arcus Gibb, Iliso Consulting, BKS,
Kwezi V3, WSP, Leads2Business, PDNA, PRDW, Vela VKE, Goba and ARUP! Thanks
so much to all our sponsors, your generosity has been overwhelming!
This year has seen some fantastic developments from the YPF. Top of the list is the format
in which our meetings are now help. We are hosted by Consulting Companies and in
return that company gets the opportunity to tell the YPs about their exciting projects.
Another development is the Monthly YPF Competition with new topics every month,whereby the winner wins a course of his or her choice from the CESA School in
Johannesburg or Cape Town. Winning entries have been published in the national YPF
PACE newsletter.
Two of our new branches, East London and Port Elizabeth were visited by Michele Kruger
and Kieren Brown respectively to help start and guide the new committees being formed.
The Chairperson elected for East London is Likhaya Nkonki from Carifro Consulting
Engineers and the Interim Chairperson for Port Elizabeth is Gary Hughes from Stemele
Bosch Africa.
For the CESA construction week, Likhaya took a few kids to East London IDZ and
Daimler Chrysler SA to give them an idea and feel for Engineering. The Mpumalanga
Chairperson is Justin Coetzee from WSP. They participated in Job-Shadow Day – 1stAugust 2008. They took a group of students from Cyril Clarke Secondary School on a tourof the Mbombela 2010 stadium construction site. This school was relocated from thestadium' s current location to a temporary structure. Grade 10 Maths and Sciencelearners were taken to see what it means to be a consulting engineer.

Dr. Michele Kruger
CESA YPF
Chairperson
Gauteng North

Mpumalanga also had its first YPF meeting in August where they appointed their committee
members. To assist YPs in the area, they held a workshop on the ECSA registration
process. They also visited secondary schools in the Mpumalanga area, to address learners
on the possibilities a career in engineering provides, promoting engineering as the careerof choice for learners.
The Western Cape branch has always been very active, and as per usual had a very
busy year! Under the Chairperson Justin Cross from PRDW, activities enjoyed by the
YPs in this province include a site visit to Green Point Stadium where 30 YP's attended
a presentation at the old stadium regarding the history of Green Point and the stadium.
The YPs were then taken on a site visit of the new stadium and had a chance to ask
some questions.
This branch also had ECSA Professional Registration Workshop presented by Rod Harker
from ECSA. The presentation focused on the registration requirements of engineers,technicians and technologists and was attended by over 100 YP's.
Additionally they had a Mentoring Workshop where presentations were made by Jeffares& Green, Ninham Shand, PDNA, KV3 and PRDW. The presentations focused on thementorship programmes that these companies run. Emphasis was placed on the role of
the YP in the mentorship programme. The workshop was well attended with even a few
directors from some of the local firms attending.
On the side they had a Survey on Mentoring which was sent out to YP's regarding
mentorship. The results of the survey are in the process of being compiled.
The Kwa-Zulu Natal YPF elected a new committee and a new Chairperson: Shian Saroop
from SSI. He is also the editor of our national YPF Newsletter called PACE.

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The Kwa-Zulu Natal YPF also hosted ECSA who gave a presentation on Professional
Registration. This meeting was attended by 60 YP and was sponsored by Kaytech. They
enjoyed another talk by Kaytech on “Designing using geosynthetics” and what they offer
the Engineering industry.
The Kwa-Zulu Natal YPF elected a new committee and a new Chairperson: Shian Saroop
from SSI. He is also the editor of our national YPF Newsletter called PACE. The KwaZulu Natal YPF also hosted ECSA who gave a presentation on Professional Registration.
This meeting was attended by 60 YP and was sponsored by Kaytech. They enjoyedanother talk by Kaytech on “Designing using geosynthetics” and what they offer theEngineering industry. They had a stand at the Young Geotechnical engineers Conference
at CAMALOT and enjoyed publicity in the ILANGA paper and SAICE newsletter.
They also put together a Mentor’s guideline document and Mentorship social event with
Johan Pienaar from ECSA.
The Gauteng province has two Chairpersons to be able to cover the very high numberof Consulting Companies situated in this province: Kieren Brown from MPA Consulting
covers Gauteng South, and Dr. Michele Kruger from Bigen Africa covers Gauteng North.
This province enjoyed well-attended branch meetings hosted at CESA, BKS, PDNA, SSI& Bigen Africa. Topics included a talk on Professional Registration by ECSA, CEO’s talking
about company projects and a talk by a professional image consultant.
The last meeting held at Bigen Africa also included the launching of the new name:
Consulting Engineering South Africa (CESA). Graham Pirie, the CEO of CESA personallyaddresses the YPs on what the new name means and represents. The YPs were also
informed on the proposed changes within ECSA and what it means to their Professional
Registration. Johan van Schalkwyk from Life Long Learning Solution addressed the YPs
about his visual material that includes a one-on-one interview with Johan Pienaar fromECSA and what is required for Registration.
Gauteng YPF also distributed their own newsletter every 3 months, launched the YPF
Monthly Competition, attended the National Youth Summit, assisted with creation of the“Mentor of the Year” Award, adjudicated the “Young Engineer of the Year” Award together
with Justin Cross from the Western Cape, adjudicated all the entries from the CESA
Construction Week and adjudicated the Pneu-Drive Challenge hosted by SEW Eurodrivein which all the top universities of South Africa competed.
They visited TRAC at their premises in Observatory in order to create a partnership inreaching school kids, hosted YPs at the Gauteng CESA Golf Day Dinner and did apresentation at the FIDIC Conference in Singapore about the South African YPF. Dr.
Michele Kruger was also chosen to FIDIC YPF Steering Committee to represent South
Africa as well as the African continent.
Together with SSI, the Gauteng YPF raised money for Nkosi’s Haven at the CESA Relayin Pretoria. The founding Director from Nkosi’s Haven, Gail Johnson attended the relay
to personally receive the monies. They also had a Survey on Mentoring as initiated by
the Western Cape YPF. As adjudicators of the “Mentor of the Year” Award, they were able
to collate the best tips by those nominated for this category. This, together with the resultsfrom the Survey will be distributed all affiliated with CESA.
All the national Chairpersons attended the prestigious CESA Awards in Johannesburg
which showcases the best Companies and Projects in the industry, as well as the Young
Engineer and Mentor of the Year.
As you can see it’s been a great year for the YPF and the busiest time is yet to come!
The second half of the year is the time we try and reach schools and universities topromote Engineering, and we have to wonderful Year-End functions planned!
To everyone involved with the YPF, or who has assisted us and touched us with their
enthusiasm and love of Engineering – THANK YOU!

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ISCE YPF starts fourth year

NEWS
Iranian Socity Of Consulting Engineers YPF held a live music concert for YP members
on 23 April 2008.

ISCE YPF

ISCE YPF started its fourth year of activities by holding its 4th general assembly meetingon 06 August 2008.

A series of training program were organized for the YP members by the ISCE YP educationcommittee. The programs subjects were:
1- Negotiation Skills.
2- Presentation Skills.
3- Principals of Strategic Management.
4- Principals of Marketing for Engineering Companies.
A series of site visits were also organized by the events committee, including visits to theMillennium Tower and Melat cinema complex.

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HOW TO BECOME PART OF THE FIDIC YPF GROUP
Become part of this young dynamic group of people and receive updates, newslettersand information on upcoming events, such as FIDIC conferences and training
opportunities.
International YPF Groups: find out what the YPs in your country are doing and how toconnect with them! Please register on the YPF homepage listed below.
Once we have your details this way, we will send you our newsletter and other info as
it comes up. Please remember to keep your details updated!
For general information about us and FIDIC, go to:
http://www1.fidic.org/resources/young/default.asp
For more information or if you need help to connect, contact me at:
fidicypforum@gmail.com
Michele Kruger
Communications Chairperson
FIDIC YPF Steering Committee

Starting your own YPF in your country
If you liked what you saw of the FIDIC YPF and YPFs across the world, why not start
your own. This is best achieved through your country’s Member Association (MA) of
FIDIC. However, if no such association exists, or your MA does not want to have theirown YPF, you can contact us to find out how to start your own YPF. Through FIDIC wemay have some contact to make it easier or help partner it with you. All you need isyour enthusiasm for Engineering! From there you decide what it is that you want yourYPF to represent. What is your focus? Is it training Young Professionals? Is it getting
the youth interested in Engineering? Is it just socializing with your peers? Or is it allof the above? As the FIDIC YPF, we will do all we can to support your new endeavor!
Contact us at: fidicypforum@gmail.com