NAA Update: Congratulations to all companies shortlisted for our Awards – and especially our winners
The feedback that we have received is that everyone had an excellent evening at the NAA Annual Awards Dinner on 6th November at the Mere – especially all the award winners.
It was with trepidation that I arrived at the Mere last week, wondering if we had done the right thing by changing venue, hoping that the revised format would work and hoping that no-one would get lost (unlike last year). My conclusion at the end of the evening was that it had been right to change the venue, the format was right and it was just those who needed to be there around 5pm, such as my staff, who didn’t get lost, but did run into the challenges of rush hour traffic! We will be putting some questions out on LinkedIn for next year’s event; please join in the discussions so that we can take your feedback into account.
Jerry Hardcastle’s “amuse-bouche” was certainly entertaining and thought provoking, let’s start thinking about next year and how we plan to widen the good news story to others outside of the industry, especially those in education so that we can look to encourage as many as possible high calibre people into our industry. If you have any questions about Greenpower or any other education initiatives that Jerry mentioned then please let me know.
Congratulations to TISS for becoming our third ‘Company of the Year’ in recent times; the company has had a remarkable year and we look forward to its continued growth and success.
Our congratulations also go to all of the award winners and finalists – just by participating you will be spreading the word about your company. I hope that you all took at least one of the dinner brochures with you so that you can use it as part of your sales pitch; if not you can view the PDF in a new ‘Awards’ section on the NAA website Click to View Link. At the NAA we use the brochures with every new company that we meet, to share information about the NW, NAA and our sponsors and finalists. Everyone needs to start honing their pencils for next year’s awards, let’s go for a bumper number of applications and we will be there to help support you through the process.
As they say there is no peace for the wicked, so obviously somewhere, unbeknown to me, I have done something very bad in my life! The morning of the dinner saw several of us at the launch of the Advanced Propulsion Centre (APC) at the University of Warwick; this is a major success story for the industry as it has 10 years of committed funding from all parties to ensure that there is a continued flow of successful R&D brought to the marketplace by UK companies for 4 of the 5 strategic technologies. Then Monday this week saw me at the NEC preparing for the UK Advanced Engineering Show; hopefully we have also had the opportunity to catch up with many of you there, or you had the opportunity to catch my talk about how supply chain companies can successfully grow into larger businesses. Once again, the stand looked very good and will hopefully make you consider exhibiting at either this or CENEX LCV 2015, either with us, or by taking your own stand.
Our last Business Excellence meeting of the year will be held at NGF EUROPE in St Helens, please take a look at the article in this newsletter and book your place now.
Carol
