NAA Update: You are invited to attend forthcoming NAA events, and to apply for an award
Carol invites you to attend the next NAA meetings, which include ‘A guide to marketing for NW automotive companies and suppliers’ on 4 October at MWS; the annual NAA networking dinner on 18 October at Carden Park; and a members networking meeting on 28 November at Jaguar Land Rover in Halewood.
I am sure that many of you, like me, live in a different location to the majority of your family as a result of work. I have just spent the Bank Holiday catching up with family and friends in Dorset, a too infrequent occurrence and it made me realise even though you don’t see some people very often the support that we give each other is important. I realised while travelling back that hopefully the NAA provides you with similar support, each of our companies are different, but when we meet there are common shared experiences and also common opportunities that we can all benefit from. Therefore I would encourage those of you who have not participated in either the Business Excellence Networking meetings or our members meetings to make a note in your diaries for the dates for the rest of the year and join us for at least one meeting. The next Business Excellence Networking meeting will be on Thursday 4October, featuring MWS Distribution; followed by the Members Networking meeting on Wednesday 28 November at Jaguar Land Rover in Halewood.
Those of you who joined us last year for our networking dinner in October at Carden Park will remember the enjoyable evening that we all had. Hopefully you already have 18 October in your diaries for this year’s event, which with the bookings we have already received will be bigger than last year. We have an addition to the event this year; we have added a range of Awards into the programme. I would encourage all of you to apply; the awards themselves will be exclusive, having been hand-made at Bentley.
Congratulations go to NGF Europe and Excel who were successful in their application for funding from the AMSCI Round 1, Stream 2 competition. We will also be keeping our fingers crossed for those companies who are applying for the AMSCI Round 2, Stream 1 applications whose closing date is in the middle of September.
September is a busy month as we will be attending two exhibitions, CENEX Low Carbon Vehicle show at Millbrook Proving Ground on 5& 6 September and then Automechanika in Germany the following week. We will also be having more apprenticeship events. If you are interested in understanding how we can support you with apprentices then please contact Susan Butters directly. If you are part of the Business Excellence programme then it is likely that Susan will be contacting you directly.
I have been surprised during the last quarter how many banks and other financial institutions have contacted me, wanting to understand more about the automotive industry – they have heard about the growth within the sector and want to understand more about the sector and how they can assist with their services and products to meet your needs. So if any of you are looking to grow and obtain funding to help you to do so and you haven’t spoken with us recently to understand what is available locally then I would encourage you to do so.
Hopefully you have all had the opportunity to look at the new website and have taken the opportunity to update your information. Just let Zoe know if you have information that needs updating or photos loading and we will get it actioned for you.
I forward to catching up with you during our events in the autumn and please remember that we like to feature any success stories in the newsletter, just let us know and we can even help you with the writing of the article.
Carol Holden
Chief Executive
