Friday 8 February is a day for being out of the office for anyone working in the marine industry in the South West. It’s the date of the British Marine Federation (BMF) South West annual conference and AGM. The event will take place at the University Centre South Devon College at Paignton.
The event includes a host of interesting and useful workshops and round table sessions, designed to help business owners and employees working in the marine industry to learn new skills, gain insight into apprenticeships, grants and local enterprise partnerships, and much more.
The event starts at 9.30am with a welcome and short AGM. The morning continues with a choice of workshops and round table sessions followed by networking over lunch, and finishes with feedback and key lessons from the discussions. The day ends with a useful and informative presentation from BMF president Howard Pridding.
The conference is free to members of the British Marine Federation and their guests. It offers a unique opportunity for south west based businesses to network and speak to experts in a number of key areas, covering all sectors relevant to running, developing and enhancing your business. The programme includes discussions about the impact of the proposed Marine Conversation Zones on businesses in the south west, as well as practical advice on grants, marine clusters and help available from Enterprise Zones and Local Enterprise Partnerships.
Other sessions are designed to help businesses grow through the development and skills of their staff. Two of the major employers in the area will be discussing apprenticeship schemes and providing hands-on advice about how they are run, the time required to set up the schemes and manage them, and the benefits for a company. This session will also include input from students about what apprenticeships mean to them.
In tough times, every business is looking for ways to save money or make the most from subscriptions paid to organisations such as the British Marine Federation. One of the sessions at the conference will highlight the tangible advantages provided from the BMF, including opportunities to increase sales internationally, meet key buyers and obtain useful grants for training and personal development.
From the changing legal requirements on boat brokerage, through to how to sell a boat on the internet, there’s a host of new ways in which businesses and individuals can use the internet to talk about what they are doing and engage with their customers. A workshop at the conference will be talking about social media, its advantages and possible pitfalls and illustrate where and how it can be used to best advantage in business; while a round table discussion will look at the current brokerage system and discuss whether its still fit for purpose or requires a radical overhaul.
