Business Development Group Report

Desktops Exhibitions
Our Desktop exhibitions programme is, we believe, unique among associations – certainly among those in the fluid-controls sector of Engineering - and is clearly identified as a major benefit of BVAA membership by our members. The value delivered means it can rightly be considered as a flagship service.

Indeed, the programme goes from strength to strength with a dozen or so events held over the last year, including Apache, EnQuest, KBR, SNC Lavalin, etc. to name but a few. We continue to recruit new i.e. never-before visited hosts too, spreading our reputation wider and further into our customer base. That we still fill these events to capacity, despite quadrupling their frequency, is testament to their power.

And already this current year Rob Boycott and his BVAA support team are on target to repeat last year’s stellar performance.

Staff
This leads me nicely on to reporting that the Association needed to find two new staff members to support the work in my area, and over the summer the Secretariat managed to secure two superb candidates. We gladly welcomed back Ellie Davies (our former Gap Year employee) who gained a degree in Events Management on her ‘sabbatical’ and consequently is now BVAA’s Events Co-ordinator. Laura Martin joined us at virtually the same time and has taken on the role of Marketing Co-ordinator. Laura and is responsible for Valve User Magazine, Social Media, websites etc. and also delivering our marketing strategy. Both new recruits have fitted in perfectly and are now key members of the BVAA team.

BVAA Messages
As the Association evolves and becomes more things, to more people, we were conscious of the need to redefine our messages. A working group was formed including the Chairman and Vice Chairs, our Director and a PR consultant, with additional input from our Board. After two sessions we came up with a nonexhaustive but largely encompassing list of the services the BVAA offers and to whom they are relevant.

They were two major surprises. Firstly, the sheer breadth and diversity of our work. Secondly, that in many instances there were multiple beneficiaries – the difference was oftentimes merely one of perspective. For example, our Supplier Day was primarily conceived as a benefit to our many supplier-members. We’d perhaps not fully appreciated its benefit to the manufacturerhosts, and indeed all the spin-outs like the networking opportunity from the preceding dinner, the mini-expo, the informative nature of the speakers etc. It was something of a revelation. Our ‘smorgasbord’ of services – ‘something for everyone’ – was in actual fact often-as-not benefitting large swathes of members, just in different ways and to a different extent.

From our Messages work, the strapline ‘Stronger Together’ emerged as a strong core message, and its derivatives Working Together, Selling Together, Innovating Together etc., were born and were equally compelling. These now form the basis of our new support documentation, relevant for existing members, future members and associates like Desktop hosts. This also ties in with our “quote a member” initiative which aims to help encourage more business-to-business trade within BVAA member companies and indeed UK companies.

After the success of the Messages exercise, the Association decided to employ the services of PR Consultant Mary Hamblyn (Articulate) to help get these messages out to the wider community. Mary has assisted further with copy writing articles and having them published in national publications to further grow the reputation of the BVAA and its members. The Secretariat is also currently negotiating some new, additional events as spin outs of this initiative, which we will no doubt report on in due course.

Market Reports
In Quarter 3 of 2018, we launched our first O&G Market Tracker in association with Westwood Global Energy Group. This is a new Oil and Gas focussed report that highlights projects and trends, mainly in the Up Stream sector, but with plans to develop further its Mid Stream and Down Stream content in the second iteration, due in Spring 2019.

This report is provided free of charge to BVAA members and has some useful insights into what the future holds and has been useful in helping members plan for their future activities. Another great example of BVAA ‘added value.’

The Oxford Economics Global Forecast continues to be our main reporting tool for global valve and actuator trends. Now in its third year, the report has been developed and improved with regular input from working group of member companies. It does however face considerable challenges as the depth and breadth of detail members often desire is rarely available through national statistics – the basis of the document – and indeed the quality of data varies considerably country-to-country and region-to-region.

If you have used the OE report and have feedback, we welcome your suggestions for improvements – please contact:- rob@bvaa.org.uk

Regional Dinner & Supplier Day
In February 2018 we held our Regional Dinner & Supplier Day in Brighouse. This year we preceded supper with three marketing workshops, as an additional free bonus.

This event – despite the heavy snowfall - drew record numbers to the informal dinner, with guest speaker and Falklands War veteran, Simon Weston proving an inspired choice.

The Supplier day was also a success with 18 companies exhibiting, and C. 100 supplier interactions with the procurement teams from some of our larger members. Feedback was positive from both supplier members and our larger OEMs. A similar event is scheduled to be run in February 2019.

One of the initiatives put forward by the Business Development group was to hold more, smaller, regional events with a focus on networking and referring business.

The Association plans to hold one of these events as a trial in early 2019 and welcomes any more suggestions on locations and activities for future events. Please contact the secretariat if you would like to put an idea forward.

Published: 26th April 2019