The Federation of Piling Specialists (FPS) podcasts, which have been produced over the last year, have been a tremendous success. Attracting guests as diverse as Ruby wax, talking mental health and wellbeing, through to leading construction industry figures such as Tim Chapman, Suzannah Nichol, Anusha Shah, Alasdair Henderson and Jim De Waele, commenting on the present and future challenges of the sector, listener numbers have grown month-on-month. This success, however, has created the not unwelcome problem of how we can expand the communications channel to engage further with those in the geotechnical sector?

After many discussions with members, listeners, and industry groups, from April 2021 the podcast will be run by Ground Forum (GF) and supported by Ground Engineering magazine (GE). This is tremendous news, as the involvement of GE brings many benefits, including wider publicity and promotion of the podcasts through its communications channels, as well as those of Ground Forum and the FPS. Additionally, the collaborative approach will allow the podcast to develop to tackle wider industry related issues and attract guests from a broader range of stakeholder’s in the construction sector.

The move will vastly improve more digital engagement with the podcast, and it is worth stressing it is not the primary intention of either GE or GF to make the podcast commercial, although obviously both GE and GF will be seeking support through sponsorship where possible.

To reflect its wider engagement, the podcast name will change to Breaking Ground, be presented by Steve Hadley and will still very much be a podcast for the geotechnical sector and for all things ground related.