Friday October 21, 2011

Dear colleague,

NABMA Conference 2011

What a great Conference we had at Harrogate.  Delegate surveys indicate that 93% of delegates thought the Conference was good/very good.  We are back at Harrogate again next year and we will be seeking to ensure that there is a different format to the Conference to make it just as attractive.  There were very positive responses in respect of the workshop sessions.  Delegates indicated that they would have liked to have had the opportunity of attending more than one workshop.  We will be looking at ways in which we can incorporate this arrangement into next year’s event.  Similarly, the Market Awards created a great deal of positive comment.  We want to build on this success and get even more entries next year.  We used the Conference to make a number of policy launches including the results of the Retail Market Survey, the Diploma in Market Administration and the Good Practice Guide and Attracting New Market Traders.  All these policy announcements are intended to assist the markets industry generally and also work towards implementing some of the recommendations in the Government Report on Markets published in 2009.  NABMA is proud of the work that it is doing with our partners in the Markets Alliance in raising the profile of markets.

Markets Awards 2011

We were delighted to make the Market Awards at Harrogate and recognise the achievements of market officers, market teams and innovative market ideas.  The awards were presented by Xavier Anderson of Blachere Illuminations UK and Hilary Paxman, DCLG.  NABMA is delighted to recognise the continued support of Blachere Illuminations UK who were the sponsors of the Market Awards. Full details can be found on the website.

Diploma In Market Administration

NABMA is delighted that we have now achieved the 50+ members of the Institute of Place Management.  Following Conference we now have almost 60 market officers in membership of the Institute.  A letter has already gone out regarding the approach to signing up for the Diploma and an application form will be available shortly.  We are hoping to launch the Diploma in January 2012.

Attracting New Market Traders

NABMA is delighted to announce a partnership with NMTF to promote the best of the local schemes that were showcased at the NABMA Conference with the National Framework of NMTF.  Further details will be announced shortly but we are hoping to run a series of regional events in the Spring of 2012 with a view to collaborating on the best practice that is available locally and the national support available via First Pitch.