With Scotland’s Housing Festival fast approaching, housing professionals may be considering whether or not to book a place at this year’s festival. This event is free and open exclusively to CIH members as one of the several benefits of being a member of the Chartered Institute of Housing. However, I think there is a particular reason why younger housing professionals would find attending Scotland’s Housing Festival particularly advantageous.

Sometimes as a young person in the sector, it can feel like the seminars or conferences require a certain level of background knowledge or experience to get the most from attending.

As a member of the CIH Futures board, which aims to encourage more young people to choose housing as a career and aims to amplify the voices of young housing professionals in the sector, I know this absolutely isn’t true!

Young housing professionals always have something important and valuable to contribute.

To use this year’s Scotland Housing Festival programme as an example, I am speaking at a breakout session on the subject of “How to attract nurture young talent”. If you are reading this as a young professional in the housing sector, it may well be that this is something that you have given some thought to during your time so far in the sector. Please do come along, share your insights in the questions and answers sections, and of course, say hello!

Last year I also spoke at a breakout session on the topic of making the housing profession more diverse and inclusive. At every CIH event I’ve attended, the issues that matter to young housing professionals are on the agenda, and insight from young professionals is welcomed.

When I ask if other young housing professionals are coming to events, I often hear the tentative reply “I think it’s too early in my career for me to attend a conference.”

My response is simple: Conferences or ‘housing festivals’ are a fantastic space to develop your skills and grow your network. It is never too early to start your professional development and reflective practice, we should all be continuously looking to grow our knowledge and engage with the latest good practice and knowledge. You will be in good company with colleagues who, like you, are driven by a desire to improve the sector and help people find a safe and secure home. It would be hard to leave a CIH conference without being inspired by the ideas, the passion and the innovation that is palpable across the conference floor.

You get the chance to make your voice heard within the sector, whether it be in the smaller “campfire” breakout sessions or asking questions to speakers on the main stage. This article I’m writing is just another example of me speaking as a young housing sector professional to other young members, to share common ground.

Maybe you believe it’s too early in your career for you to attend a conference because you haven’t yet managed to build a network of people. Or the idea of being the only person from your organisation who is signed up to attend the conference is unnerving for you.

The CIH conferences offer such a fertile ground to build new connections, including in those areas of your career which you may have not explored yet. It’s about opening the door to new possibilities.

You can find out more about training options, mentoring support, and other options open to you to help you make that career progression into a reality.

My call to the sector is to encourage more young people to come, develop and grow. For the younger housing professionals, get involved! For team leaders, and managers, encourage your teams to make the time to take advantage of the hub of the very best practice, networking, collaboration and upskilling opportunities that Scotland’s Housing Festival provides.