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Last October's Healthcare Estates 2013 conference saw one of the first day's 'Engineering' sessions debate the topic, 'Why do so many buildings disappoint their owners and occupants?' Much of the discussion centered on the problems caused by 'inadequate management of the commissioning process'. A roundtable debate jointly staged recently in London by IHEEM and the B&ES, the leading U.K. trade association for building services engineering contractors, took the debate forward. As HEJ editor, Jonathan Baillie reports, the discussions confirmed that one of the key contributors to poor commissioning is a failure to involve specialist building services contractors sufficiently early. It was also agreed that finding a really effective 'client-side' project manager, with the panoply of skills and experience the role requires, can be 'a tough ask'. In this issue of HEJ we report on the debate's first 'half'; in June's edition, we will cover 'part two' of a lively, forthright, and positive debate.