Hosted virtually on the Hopin platform due to coronavirus restrictions on Wednesday (7 July), the trade association kicked off with an introduction from CEO Charles Jarrold, followed by a session from Kevin Hard from Inspiration-all talking about the impact of leadership on engagement and wellbeing.
The BPIF’s annual review update was then introduced by Ian Wilton, BPIF president and operations director at CDS.
He said: “Once again, the resilience of the industry we are in has shown its strength. And although there have been and will be unfortunately casualties along the way, the industry does everything it can to defy even what a pandemic can throw at us.
“I’m also amazed at the work the BPIF has done this year – the strength of a membership organisation is showing value and support when it’s needed most. I and the non-executive team have never been so proud of what the BPIF has achieved.”
During the annual review, Jarrold gave an overview about the BPIF’s year and outlined its priorities for the coming months.
Topics covered included BPIF’s support services, its health and safety and employment advice and support, its lobbying and representation activities, and its approach to events for the remainder of 2021, as well as its current focus on new initiatives including cyber security and environmental performance.
Jarrold said: “As I reported in our last annual review in September last year, it was a bit of a mad scramble to work with government in ensuring that our sector, along with the wider economy, received the support it needed to, notably with the closure of significant parts of the economy; retail, hospitality, and leisure.
“The job retention scheme and the various schemes were vital in supporting our industry. We pushed hard along with other trade associations to avoid a cliff-edge end to the Job Retention Scheme. Tapering that scheme was welcome and vital, as well as the outlined roadmap for the lifting of the lockdown restrictions.”
He added: “Our support schemes were busy – advising an industry under lockdown. Looking to the future however, we recognise that the way we all work has changed and is unlikely to revert to pre-pandemic habits, at least in totality.
“Remote working, especially video conferencing and the like, is here to stay. It has some advantages for sure, helping us as an organisation engage more widely and more efficiently with the sector, but it doesn’t replace face-to-face, it’s complementary.”
During the annual review, BPIF managing director of training Karly Lattimore also talked about the organisation’s training efforts, including apprenticeship training, which continued throughout the pandemic.
Finance director Peter Allen said group turnover at the BPIF for the year ended 31 March 2021 was £4.28m, which was 5% above budget but 11% down on the previous year. This included total membership income of £1.9m, which was 9.7% above budget but 15% down on the previous year.
Later in the day, Morten Gammelgard, Rasmus Baekgaard, and Scott Anderson from BullWall headed up a cyber security session that covered insights to ransomware and why it is so damaging, and highlighted some of the approaches that different organisations are taking when it comes to ransomware.
The final session of the event, which had 108 registrations in total during the day and also featured numerous opportunities to network, was a political update from Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) policy adviser Alan Dick, with Jarrold and BPIF public affairs adviser Carys Davis.
The day's sessions are available for BPIF members to rewatch here.
