BVAA’s 79th Annual General Meeting

The latest BVAA Annual General Meeting was held at the prestigious and stunning Rudding Park Hotel in Harrogate on the 15th and 16th November 2018.

Thursday kicked off the proceedings with a board meeting and dinner in the hotel library.

The Friday began with the now traditional presentations. These were led by the BVAA’s own Future Leaders Cohort 3, then Mark Homer - VP & Head of Digital Transformation and finally Professor Roger Bromley.

The presentation delivered by the Future Leaders induced a great deal of admiration as delegates were able to overcome a battle with glossophobia (a fear of public speaking) to reflect on the skills acquired throughout the year long course.

The presentation also outlined the requirements to succeed and stand out as a frontrunner in the industry. The group demonstrated their progression as they now begin their journey to become the next future leaders and frontrunners in the valve and actuator industry.

Special thanks were expressed to Dr Martin Haigh MBE for his continued support and assistance in shaping this highly popular and extensive programme into what is now a staple of the BVAA.

Following a short interval the second presentation was delivered by Mark Homer of GE Digital - Predix ServiceMax.

Mark led an informative and highly fascinating discussion on the use of digital twin technology. He explored not only what makes a digital twin and the varying types available, but why digital twins could be of value to BVAA members and the wider British valve industry. He outlined how digitising customer assets can yield better industrial and customer outcomes.

In the wider industrial world, industrial assets under maintenance globally exceed $240 trillion dollars, with a maintenance of $27 trillion. Moving to predicative maintenance model organisations have seen savings of 10% - 20% over preventative maintenance strategies.

Finally, Professor Roger Bromley who specialises in innovation and collaboration as well as having worked for more than 30 years with over 80 FT100 businesses, delivered an instructive presentation covering the concept of innovation.

He has founded and successfully commercialised a number of technology innovation businesses, in particular, Smart Component Technologies Ltd.

SCT is at the forefront of condition monitoring for highly-critical industrial assets based on the development of low-cost solutions for predictive maintenance and asset monitoring.

As well as the informative presentations, an exceptional afternoon tea at Betty’s tea room got underway for delegate partners and comprised a delightful afternoon tea filled with Christmas themed pastries and delectable savouries.

With a private upstairs room, which was fully decked out in colourful and bright Christmas attire, the area was the perfect setting for attendees and a lucky couple of our BVAA staff members to catch up and unwind before the evenings events.

Betty’s tea room in Harrogate has been established since 1919 and it popularity was particularly evident as the group arrived.

The exhibition around the room included representatives from CML, Wika, Severn, SmartAct, Team Furmanite, Ceetak, Quest, Protel, Langley Alloys and BVAA’s own Future Leaders.

Published: 26th April 2019