Getting ready for NEC4

Getting ready for NEC4


Announced in March 2017, the new NEC4 suite of contracts is set to be formally launched at the NEC Users’ Group Annual Seminar in London on 22 June 2017. Entitled ‘NEC3 to NEC4: from partnership to collaboration’, the event is taking place at the prestigious County Hall on the south bank of the Thames.

Delegates will learn the key differences between NEC3 and NEC4 contracts, find out why the changes have been made, understand their legal implications and discover the procurement benefits the changes are designed to bring. 

Representatives from the NEC4 drafting team will also introduce the two new additions to the NEC suite – the NEC4 Alliance Contract (ALC) and the NEC4 Design, Build and Operate Contract (DBO). The context behind these new contracts and when they should be used will be discussed in detail. 

Eminent speakers

In addition to key members of the NEC4 drafting team, speakers will include HS2 commercial director and NEC Users’ Group chair Beth West, Specialist Engineering Contractors’ Group chief executive and NEC Users’ Group president Rudi Klein, and Institution of Civil Engineers president Tim Broyd.

The one-day event will include speakers’ panel sessions and interactive workshops led by NEC experts and contract drafters, ensuring all delegates will have an opportunity to discuss the NEC4 changes and what they mean at first hand.

The seminar will conclude with a major networking reception and the NEC ‘Clause 10.1’ awards ceremony. These awards will celebrate how NEC users have successfully delivered projects using the clause 10.1 ‘sprit of trust and mutual co-operation’.

Global interest

The imminent launch of NEC4 has attracted global interest, with more than 1,000 NEC users from around the world joining the first of a series of NEC4 webinars on 5 April. Over 50 questions were asked during the ‘Revealing NEC4 event’, which is now available to watch on the NEC website. 

The next NEC4 webinar will be on ‘the Project manager in the NEC4 ECC: what’s new and different?’ This will be run by NEC Users’ Group secretary Robert Gerrard and NEC consultant Richard Patterson on 17 May. 

NEC users in the Asia-Pacific wishing to learn more about NEC4 can attend the NEC Asia-Pacific Users’ Group workshop event on 16 June, while those in Australasia can take part in the NEC Australasia Users’ Group conference in the third quarter of this year.

Training and resources

A series of public NEC4 training courses has been launched, covering introductions to the new contracts. Initially provided as classroom courses in London, these will be rolled out in the UK and internationally as well as being made available online and in-house.

In the meantime NEC users can refer to the free-to-download whitepaper entitled NEC4: The next generation – an explanation of changes and benefits written by Costain commercial director Matthew Garrett. 

Pre-ordering discount

Finally, for users wishing to get printed copies of NEC4 contracts posted to them as soon as they are available on 22 June, they can pre-order them with a 10% discount by quoting the promotion code NEC4PRE. ePrint, eView and eCorporate will be available to buy from the launch date onwards.

Pre-order NEC4 here.
 
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