What is BE Conservation?
Boniface Enterprises (BE) is the company formed by Stephen Boniface to accommodate his various businesses. BE Conservation is primarily for training in heritage conservation matters. Below you will find more information about some specific areas of work, but please contact me if you wish to discuss something not mentioned here.
In addition to BE Conservation, Stephen has set up a private Community for those involved in Heritage Conservation.
Stephen is now also a professional artist developing a series of artworks with a focus on heritage buildings and sites, but also other topics. Stephen has been elected a Member of the Society of Architectural Illustrators. Courses in art can be provided and specifically Stephen has designed a day course helping professionals to improve their sketching and drawing skills.
What is BE Training?
Training is available for individuals, small or larger groups and organisations, including corporate training.
Unlike coaching, training is intended to deliver specific information, technical knowledge, etc., on a given subject. During our first discussion we can decide what it is that you, the client, want to achieve. I have created an outline of subjects, a framework, that I have called The Three Ps of Building Conservation. I am happy to create bespoke training whether within the framework of The Three Ps, or otherwise.
Training can be delivered online in short (c. 1hour) sessions, at a venue that we agree between us (perhaps the client’s office), or on a specific site. Regarding the last of these, it may be that the client has a building in mind that would be a good training venue, or we can jointly find a suitable venue of interest. Venues I have used include Little Hall museum in Lavenham, Thaxted Guildhall, and the Weald & Downland Museum. It is always beneficial to walk around a building or a town to look at and talk about specific issues.
session together a programme can be designed to suit your purposes.
As well as Building Conservation focused topics, I am able to deliver other matters such as:
- Presentation
- Expert Witness
- Report Writing
- Drawing and Painting Buildings
In addition to the above I can offer:
- Mentoring for building conservation accreditation
Corporate Training Day in Lavenham, Suffolk – Photograph courtesy of David Clare (Gold Crest Surveyors)
What is BE Coaching?
Coaching is a professional relationship that proactively helps you produce positive changes in their careers, businesses or organisations. With BE Coaching the emphasis is on Building Conservation and anything to do with Heritage Assets. BE Coaching will aim for a positive and empowering attitude to help you develop and bring about the careers and businesses they want. BE Coaching aims to ensure that you are: informed, envisioned, motivated and inspired to develop your career in building conservation. Most of all, the aim is to build confidence in your abilities.
What is BE Mentoring?
Working with individuals Stephen can provide guidance, and encouragement to those wanting to develop a career in Heritage Conservation and specifically those who may be looking to attain Accreditation.
Delivery of Sessions
As already mentioned above (regarding training), I am happy to deliver training in one of various ways. For online sessions I work via Zoom, but can also work by telephone and face-to-face. Modern technology allows me to work with clients anywhere in the world. Telephone and Zoom are hugely efficient and productive in terms of your busy schedule and our valuable time together.
The Heritage Conservation Community – what is it?
The Heritage conservation community is an international online community of professionals from a variety of fields, having in common that we are all involved in heritage conservation. Although not a comprehensive list members might include: surveyors, architects, engineers, conservation officers, planners, architectural technologists, archaeologists, conservators, and others.
This is not just a UK based community, but one where anyone involved in heritage conservation around the globe can join.
The community is a place to share experience and learn from shared experience. It is a place to learn and to network with others. The community offers a safe place to ask questions and to seek guidance, where professionals come together with a shared interest in order to support and learn from each other.
I want to help professionals develop their knowledge and skills in order to build knowledge and confidence through shared experience. I also want to bring together diverse professionals from around the world sharing a common interest.
It is my intention that this community will be a place of interesting information and contacts, where members can add to their conservation skills in order to develop their career and businesses.
How I Work
My coaching will be completely tailored to you and your desired outcomes, aspirations and goals. Our first session together will help us to determine how the coaching proceeds and what outcomes you are hoping to achieve.
Apart from the coaching session itself, I offer ongoing email support. Where appropriate, I can effect introductions to others with the ultimate aim of creating a peer group.
Why use BE Conservation?
Through questioning techniques, lateral thinking, guiding you to find out for yourself, coaching focuses on helping you discover answers and learn for yourself. This has an empowering impact on you, as such an approach leads to longer lasting results.
40+ Years Experience
General and building surveying, planning and legal work
Vast industry knowledge
Experience on a wide range of property types and periods
Targeted Training
Training / Coaching, and/or Mentoring tailored to suit you.
Some Common FAQs
At times we reach the limits of our understanding and competence to do the job in hand. Sometimes we receive an enquiry for a job but are uneasy about it because it takes us into areas we are not trained in. There are times we come across the unexpected and are not prepared or sufficiently knowledgeable to tackle it. We can turn to books and/or the internet, but there is no substitute to being able to talk to someone. You may be at a crossroads in your career and may want to change paths. Or, you may simply want to add to your skills. Speaking to someone who has “been there and done it”, can often help us to more forward with confidence.
The aim of the coaching is to help the individual develop their knowledge, passion for the subject and confidence. How we achieve this will depend on where you are starting from and where you wish to go. The coaching will be customised to meet your specific needs. We can explore subjects together and I can assist you to learn, by pointing you in the right direction and perhaps by specific attention to areas of interest, problems to solve or goals to achieve.
The training courses are structured and more rigid with the aim of providing content for a wider audience. It is not bespoke to an individual and is often delivered to a group. Training may result in handouts, reading material, etc. The coaching may incorporate training and training may lead to coaching, but they are different.
A period of focused discussion with structure. The aim being to add to your knowledge but also guide your self learning outside and beyond the session. Each session will be planned to cover the topic or topics that were discussed and agreed at the outset. At the end of the session expect to be challenged to do some research and perhaps some homework. The ultimate aim is to provide you with a better understanding that in turn will give you confidence.
Please let us know. Even if Stephen is unable to deliver the topic he may know of other specialists that he can bring in as guest coaches. However be assured that Stephen will only deliver sessions on topics he has experience with.