Tim Pyne, co-founder of FOOTPRINT+, reflects on how circular construction has moved from theory to practice — and why the event’s move to London is paying off.

What are the issues that everybody’s talking about?
Reuse of steel, new types of concrete and how companies are starting to provide access to materials stripped out for commercial refits. It’s all come on massively since FOOTPRINT+ was launched four years ago. Then, the concepts seemed be intangible, but now the engineers and contractors are talking about the large-scale projects that are actually being built.

If people only have time for one quick visit to Footprint when do you suggest they go?
It depends what you’re interested in! What projects you’re working on, which marketplace you’re intending to move to. There’s no right or wrong time, as there is something for everyone.

Any surprises so far?
The finance stage has been mobbed. When we first talked about moving FOOTPRINT+ to London from Brighton, we wanted to provide proximity to the city to enable investors better access to the conversation, and this has proved to be exactly the case.

We’ve also changed the design this year — we encouraged remote working last year and put desks in. This year we removed the desks, so that people have to have real-life conversations. Because that’s what’s it’s all about!