AT chats to… BCO President Peter Crowther about looking for nuggets from fellow attendees, his new role at Tatton Estate and fortune favouring the bold.

What brings you to BCO Conference/What do you hope to achieve?
The opportunity to learn is the primary reason for attending the Conference. Listening to speakers at the top of their game, inspecting cutting edge projects and mingling with the engaged and engaging fellow attendees is guaranteed to yield some nuggets that I can take back to my day job and perform better as a result.

Aside from your BCO role, what are you working on at the moment?
I’ve just taken up the role of CEO for Tatton Estate. The estate blends commercial and residential investment properties, along with land for agriculture and development. Every day is very much a school day at present. I am also working with a group of investors that have an appetite to invest in offices, which is very exciting.

What stops you from doing the work you want to do?
Time and money. There are only so many hours in a day and with more time I’d be able to do more. At present, offices are not de rigueur, so equity sources are very cautious. Now is the time to be bold as demand remains strong and supply is dwindling. There will only be one result in those circumstances, fortune favouring the brave.

What sets the BCO conference apart from the other high-profile gatherings in the industry calendar?
The BCO conference brings together a diverse range of professionals that approach the shared challenge of shaping the future of workspaces from differing perspectives which makes for thought provoking and challenging content. The conference’s future-looking focus is reinforced by the empowered NextGen attendees and contributors which serves to enhance the creativity and thought-provoking nature of the event.

What do you make of the decision to hold this year’s conference in Milan?
I love Italy – the architecture, heritage, vibrancy, people, food and drink. Milan is a global capital of design and fashion, so I’m intrigued to see how this plays through to the office, in design, branding and functionality.

What gets you out of bed in the morning?
My new role fires me out of bed in the morning. I like variety in my work, and I’ve now got more of it than I knew existed. I’m working with great people on a portfolio with huge potential which is a great position to be in.

And what keeps you awake at night?
The flip side of my new position is that there aren’t enough hours in the day. As hard as I work, I feel compelled to do more as I want to support the team better and ensure that we optimise every opportunity. My mind therefore struggles to switch off.

Peter Crowther is BCO President, partner at Here and CEO at Tatton Estate.