BPMA focus on the tasks ahead

The BPMA had a busy day on 23^rd January in London’s Leicester Square hosting the NextGen and Sustainability focus group meetings.

NextGen

The morning began with a NextGen focus group meeting, with a good mix of delegates from suppliers and distributors. As sustainability is high on everyone’s agenda, we started off with a discussion around this topic. For many businesses, sustainability is a relatively new challenge, but for the next generation of staff and business owners, this topic will be shaping the way they do business and could determine their successes. The group then discussed what type of events the industry should organise so that we ensure we have something for everyone.

Sustainability

Immediately after the NextGen meeting, the Sustainability focus group met. Over 30 delegates attended the event, mainly consisting of business owners and senior management of a broad range of suppliers and distributors.

Nigel Pearce from Bagco “Given the mix of invitees in the room & so many of the ideas and suggestions, I have no doubts that yesterday was a great start and policy can come from this with BPMA taking the lead”.

As this topic is so varied and subjective, we asked the delegates a number of questions prior to the meeting for discussion on the day. If any readers would like to give the BPMA their thoughts on the questions below, please send to jon.birrell@bpma.co.uk

• What does sustainability mean to you/your business?
• What would you like to see change within our industry to support sustainability?
• What challenges do you face on a day to day basis from your clients with regards to sustainability?
• Are there any specific topics that you’d like us to cover?

Mick Humphries from TC Branding Group called the event “a real eye opener … it will certainly help us as a company to prioritise this important issue”.

After discussing these questions, we had a number of breakout sessions on the day where we focused on determining short, medium and long term goals, which included events, education, knowledge platforms and an industry standard. More information on the outcome of the meeting, along with an action plan will be shared in due course.

Chris Dawson from Jack Nadel International commented “This first focus group meeting was an excellent start to a long road in deciding how both suppliers and distributors can move to become more sustainable. It highlighted a need for the Industry to share knowledge, best practise and to gain a full understanding of all the terminology and meaning in this huge subject area. Jon and the team chaired an insightful first meeting which gave all of us a lot more to think about”.