REVIEW: Savills Young Professionals Conference - Madrid

At Savills, the development of young professionals is of great importance for the medium and long-term continuity of the company. As a young professional it is important to have a motivating start to your career and while working at an internationally regarded full-service property consultancy, it is possible to achieve this providing solid a foundation for your career within the company. The SYP (Savills Young Professionals) believe that by sharing gained knowledge and expertise with other young professionals, who share a similar career path within different departments (eg. valuation, agency, property management etc), will by consequence enlarge your network of contacts with people who will one day hope to be the future leaders within Savills. However, the SYP should not only exist within our own Savills office, but also extend to other firms and sectors which closely tie in with our own.

The objectives of the SYP European network include; creating and enlarging the network of young professionals amongst the offices of Savills throughout Europe. The SYP also exists to share cross border knowledge, experience, business opportunities and understanding of the Savills brand. All young professionals with a working experience between 0 to 3 years are to be included in the Savills Young Professionals European network and meet in one of the Savills offices in Europe once a year.

On 15th Sept – 16th Sept 2016, a group of 4 graduates from Savills Ireland got the opportunity to travel to The Savills European Young Professionals Conference in Madrid. This was a chance to visit the Savills Madrid office, discuss market trends and develop relationships amongst other European Savills Employees. On the first day of the conference they received insightful and entertaining presentations on topics such as Savills European operations, Career Development, European Valuations Service and Cross Border Investments. These presentations were presented by directors from Savills throughout Europe. In the evening they were treated to a dinner and reception in association with the German Urban Land Institute. The following day, the Savills Madrid office organised a site visit at the largest office building the 43 storey Torre Espacio http://www.torrespacio.com/en/ in the newly developed Cuatro Torres Business Area. The final activity for the trip was a guided tour of Madrid from Carmen Jimenez of Savills Spain.

The graduates found the conference very worthwhile, providing a great learning experience and improving their knowledge of both the strong Savills European network and the European property market. They noted the benefits of taking part in such an initiative included the opportunity to gauge where Savills Ireland stands in a wider European context, and provided the opportunity to establish contacts and gain insight into the experiences of their colleagues in the various Savills offices around Europe. This enhances their ability to offer a better service to international clients in the future and to understand the Savills European network in more detail. Following the success of this trip the graduates aim to replicate this initiative domestically and organise a networking event for young professionals in the property sector in the coming months.