The national final of the ICE Communications Competition took place on Wednesday 19th May at Birmingham University where four competing teams battled to be crowned the winners.
The competition, which gives young engineers the opportunity to develop their communications skills in role play public consultation scenarios based around mock engineering schemes, saw teams from AECOM in London, Doran Consulting in Belfast, ARUP in Bristol and Jacobs in Leeds each give presentations about different controversial societal issues.
After delivering a passionate and fun presentation to the audience as well as confidently answering the questions fired to them by the audience, Doran Consulting from Belfast were crowned the winners of the Communications Competition 2010.
The team took on the role of the Local Authority’s Planning Officer for ‘Greenshire District Council’ and presented a proposal to a mock scenario regarding a new parking facility to improve both the tourist potential of the town and the employment situation.
Simon Lamont, team captain for Doran Consulting said “We thoroughly enjoyed participating in the competition and found it both challenging and rewarding. It gave us a fantastic opportunity to further develop our presentation skills which looks great on your CV and is something that all employers look for. We would recommend the competition to all graduates.”
Joint second place was awarded to the teams from AECOM and Arup with Jacobs being given third place.
The judges were very impressed with all the teams that made it through three different stages to reach the final of the competition, Chairman of the judging panel Ian Jenkinson said: “Every team produced work or and performed at a high standard. It was our opinion that any of the teams and each of the individual members could be deployed in our respective organisations to carry out a similar project and we would be confident that it would be done effectively, professionally and with aplomb.”