The BCA conference: why does it matter?

Counting down to this year’s BCA Annual Conference I’m inclined to see it as a coming of age – I went to my first one 21 years ago, but I can’t claim to have attended all of them since then.

It’s an appropriate time to look back, not so much at the individual conferences, which would be stretching anybody’s powers of recall, but at the issues discussed and in particular at the “so what?”

Let’s look at that first. Why does it matter? What difference does it make? Each delegate will have their own answers to that, but I have no doubt that I will head back to The Deep after the event with a greater understanding of where and how our industry is constantly evolving, hand-in-hand with the business sectors of our clients. 

That key information equips us with the knowledge and insight to improve what we do. It will influence our future strategy to help us build long term success, and it can enable us to pick up a few quick wins along the way.

Technology has been an essential agenda item for as long as I can remember and, however unlikely it may seem at the moment, it’s hard to see even Brexit having the same durability! The simple reason is that tech itself is changing almost every day. The Deep Business Centre has always housed clients who harness and demonstrate the latest technology in different ways – like the one who recently had us all building spaghetti towers! 

It’s vital therefore that we do all we can to understand and anticipate where these businesses are heading, and I’ll be paying particularly close attention to anything which can help with that.

But thankfully we still live in an age when people make businesses, and more than anything I’m looking forward to hearing from Kevin Winstanley, John Gravett and Sam Piper about the role of technology as an enabler for entrepreneurs to create and improve business opportunities.

Linked to that is the discussion about how people work. Some people work from home and, as the trend towards urban living intensifies, others are able to blur the lines by keeping their dwelling separate from their office, but only by a staircase or two.

An event which we hosted at The Deep featured three people from Reckitt Benckiser’s future leadership programme discussing how to create the most productive working environment for Millennials and Generation Z. It takes us into the territory of the first presentations of the day from Phillip Ross, Olly Olsen and Charlie Green, which I’m confident will be informative and thought provoking for us all.

Above all, the BCA Annual Conference has a format which is designed to deliver, and that’s exactly what it does. Some business groups might take two or three days to meander through such a high volume of top-quality speakers and subjects. Our programme of short, punchy presentations leaves no time for wasted words. BCA Annual Conference day is about relevance, it makes an impact and it delivers outstanding value in every sense.