Industry Connect was the title for our breakfast event on 18th September. The event was sponsored by Cogent and the Royal Society of Chemistry.
The event had four speakers and topics of interest. Stuart Ross, Chair of Food North West Ltd and The Environmental Network NW Ltd as well as a former Supply Chain and Distribution Director of Tesco, spoke on the commercial opportunity presented to business by the concept of sustainability. Stuart outlined the practical application of the principle of The Triple Bottom Line and how increasing pressure on both costs and the green agenda exists for all supply chains with little opportunity left in many for doing more with less.
Ciara Dempsey, Regulatory Affairs Specialist from the Royal Society of Chemistry presented on the REACH regulation and how many companies are unsure of how this complex legislation affects them. This talk provided an overview of the obligations of downstream users under REACH.
Clare Wilson, Small Companies Programme manager from the Royal Society of Chemistry gave a presentation on how The Royal Society of Chemistry can provide support for small companies with their recently launched first phase of a package aimed at small companies. The talk described the support and benefits which are now available.
Our final presenter at the event was Kate Griffiths from Cogent who spoke about Performance Benchmarking for the Process Industries and how to compete successfully in today’s global market, UK companies must have a well-trained, highly skilled workforce. The SME Performance Benchmarking Tool encourages Process Manufacturers to consider their workforce development needs. This presentation summarised the use of the tool, which allows the user to self-diagnose areas for development by mapping individual responses to an industry benchmark (i.e. responses of peers) and the Gold Standard (THE standard for skills in the Process Industries).
To view our future events please go to chemicalsnorthwest.org.uk/events
