Another well received conference – hailed as the best yet!

Many had thought that the 2008 Conference was the best for a number of years but it was surpassed by the 2009 Conference. The quality of speakers was superb, marshalled well by the returning MC for the event, Adrienne Lawler. The keynote speaker was Lord Digby Jones and he did not disappoint. Speaking without notes he held the audience captivated with his thoughts about the ‘growing apartheid ‘between the public and private sectors. Mark McAteer of The Improvement Service followed Lord Jones with his own view on the changes that are necessary amongst local authorities, and provided some extremely sobering predictions about future local government funding. Pat Watters, Chair of COSLA, gave an update on the Concordat and his view on the issues that were the most important to the ASSIST membership. Verner Wheelock gave an in depth and fascinating talk on his views that concluded that all nutritional information was misleading at best and at worst was wrong. Nigel Risner completed day one and was roundly regarded as one of the best motivational speakers that the audience had ever heard.

The exhibition on day one was extremely well attended and 11 new suppliers were on show. Day two started with the ASSIST AGM, at which Ken Campbell was unanimously voted Chair of the Association. Ronnie Dinnie was voted on as Vice Chair. Shona Grant from Fife was welcomed onto the committee. Lindsay Graham of Redbrook Garve gave a talk about the Midlothian schools Pilot scheme that empowers the pupils to register their opinions on schools/meals, etc. She was followed by Jamie Maxton who outlined his thoughts on the future political landscape for Scotland and how this might affect the councils. Bill Kennedy introduced the School Cook of the Year scheme – SCOTY – and showed the benefit that Tayside Contracts have had from taking part. And finally Fergus Chambers came back to the conference a year on from his talk on Direct and Care Services becoming an LLP to give an update on Cordia and how well the transition has gone. His talk was, as always, extremely informative and entertaining. The awards this year were as follows:

ASSIST Chair award – Fife Council (for their apprenticeship scheme)

ASSIST Best Achiever award – Alison Sinclair, Tayside Contracts (Alison was runner up in SCOTY and her dessert was produced for the Gala Dinner)

ASSIST Best Stand – Green Gourmet

The Committee would like to thank Catherine Nelson for her tenure as Chair of ASSIST. Catherine has represented the Association vigorously and effectively and her efforts are very much appreciated.

30th & 31st August Glasgow Caledonian UniversityThis year’s Conference was held in Glasgow and saw the best turnout of delegates yet. The suppliers were delighted with the time they got to spend with the delegates. Many said it was the best ASSIST exhibition yet. The theme for the 2012 Conference was ‘Open to Change’ and the delegate sessions and exhibition were held at Caledonian University for the first time. Thanks go to our speakers;

Paul Jukes, Executive Director of Environmental Services, North Lanarkshire Council

Diane Leask, Quality Improvement Officer, East Renfrewshire Council

Andrew Dickson and Clare Ollerenshaw of Zero Waste Scotland

Gary Ennis of NSDesign

James Allred Marketing Manager of Unilever Food Solutions

Magnus Mcfarlane Barrow, CEO of Mary’s Meals

Colin McLeod of Tree of Knowledge

There were 49 exhibitors, eight of whom were at ASSIST for the first time. Craig Stevenson MD of Braehead Foods was awarded with the Chair Award for services to the industry. Green Gourmet won the award for best stand. The inaugural ASSIST Scottish School Cook of The Year prizes were also awarded at the dinner with Norrie Scott, Catering Manager of Perth High School, winning the accolade of our first ever School Cook of The Year. Congratulations to him and all our other competitors (see separate post on ASSIST Scottish School Cook of The Year )

ASSIST CONFERENCE 2013 – TALKING HEADS29-30 August – Caledonian University, GlasgowThis years ASSIST conference, sponsored by Muller Wiseman, will be held in Glasgow for the third year running. The venue for the Conference and Exhibition is Glasgow Caledonian University. The theme for this year’s conference is ‘Talking Heads’.Conference Delegates will be coming from councils all over Scotland from Highland and Moray in the north to the Scottish Borders in the south, and will include the decision makers for purchasing FM related products. As Bill Kennedy, National Chair of ASSIST states, ‘Our theme for the Conference this year is ‘Talking Heads’ – one of the key objectives for ASSIST is to generate discussion and information-sharing between councils – we are not in competition with each other and we need to share best practice and lessons learned. That’s what the launch of our Scottish School Meals site has been all about. It is really important for each authority to look at ways it can improve its service, even when budgets are being cut. Marketing is an important part of that mix.’This year ASSIST has great mix of speakers including Rory Mair, Chief Executive Officer, COSLA, David Mories from The Glasgow 2014, Commonwealth Games organisation, Elsie Downham of The Soil Association, Colin Mair, Chief Executive Officer of The Improvement Service, Marie-Claire James of The Federation of Chefs Scotland, and James Anthony. Each of our speakers will give their own individual takes on what the delegates can do to develop their business. We purposely invited key influencers from government and local authorities this year to give us their take on the future of Facilities management within Scottish local authorities. Bill goes on to say, ‘ASSIST as an organisation was established to create and present a shared voice on all matters relating to Facilities Management throughout Scotland’s 32 local authorities. The organisation is even more important today than ever. As it is a difficult year for council finances we have frozen our delegate fee at £95, thanks in part to sponsorship from Muller Wiseman, and our exhibitors. We work closely with all our suppliers and our exhibition this year will have 46 stands. All will be exhibiting products that fit our members specifications, and some have created products specifically for our market.’The format for the conference will remain as in past years with the supplier exhibition taking place on Day One.

Exhibitors this year include:

BRAKES, UNICO, PREMIER, CRB, MULLER, CALYPSO, BATLEYS, GREEN GOURMET, QUORN3663, CATERINGFALCON, MCCAIN, FOOD PARTNERS, ARROW SUPPLIES, COOLDELIGHT, MULLER WISEMAN, HARFIELD, NRS, NISBETS, DIVERSEY, THERMOBOX, SPACERIGHT, PARENT PAY, FDH, AGBARR, UK FOODHALL, COOK SCHOOL, FIFE CREAMMERY, GT CLEANING, SECRET SAUSAGES, SCOMAC, HOBART, SOIL ASSOCIATION, ER MOFFAT, UNILEVER, CONTRACT FURNITURE SPECIALISTS, IDEAL, BUNZL CHS, BUNZL CATERING SUPPLIES, DR OETKER, PASTA KING, ROLLOVER, MAKRO, KARCHER, ETI,CARING INT, NESTLE

Bill Kennedy is keen that ASSIST continues to address important issues for all its members. ‘This year we will be launching a major Commonwealth Promotion as well as highlighting updates to our website, running a third Scottish School Cook of The Year promotion, and introducing a new ASSIST Awards scheme for Scotland.There will be three awards at this year’s conference:

ASSIST Chair Award – last year’s winner was Craig Stevenson of Braehead Foods, for services to industry and continued support of ASSIST.

ASSIST Scottish School Cook of The Year – last year won by Norrie Scott of Tayside Contracts.

ASSIST Best Stand – last year won by Green Gourmet. The ASSIST website is www.assistfm.comThe School meals site is at www.scottishschoolmeals.co.ukIf you wish to contact ASSIST please email: info@assistfm.com or call Alan Cunningham for more information on 07768 584517.

ASSIST’s 15th annual Conference was roundly received as the best conference ever.

Bill Kennedy, passing on the National Chair position to Alistair McIntyre of the Scottish Borders stated, ‘I’m proud of our services and also I’m proud of what ASSIST has achieved over the last 15 years. In the last three years under my tenure we have seen the launch of our consumer facing website, www.scottishschoolmeals.co.uk. We have put on some great promotions such as ‘The Culinary Games’, ‘Scottish School Meals Week‘ and this year’s ‘Year of Food and Drink’ promotion with Education Scotland and The Scottish Food and Drink Federation. ASSIST is more important today than ever. ASSIST is the national voice for our services, and we have become a real conduit between government agencies and local authorities.’

Speakers at the Conference were, Gavin Stevenson, CEO Dumfries & Galloway Council, Pete Ritchie, Director, Nourish Scotland, Fergus Chambers, Past National Chair ASSIST FM, Cyrus Todiwala, Chef Patron of Cafe Spice Namaste, Myles Bremner, Director, School Food Plan, Lesley Kirkwood, HNI, Rachel McAdams, NHS Scotland and Gary Ennis, of NS Design, Gavin Stevenson spoke about his vision for Dumfries & Galloway Council and the move to creating an enterprising focussed Department. Pete Ritchie, discussed the work of Nourish Scotland and paid particular credence to what was going on in Denmark. Fergus Chambers, walked us through the last 15 years with a personal and enjoyable take on past Conferences and initiatives. Cyrus gave an inspirational talk about using Scottish produce, and showed us why he has won many sustainable awards for his championing of British farmers. He also gave us a whirlwind talk about the cuisine of India – just don’t call it a curry anymore!

Myles Bremner, began day 2 with a discussion of the initiatives taking place in England and Wales, whilst Lesley Kirkwood shared information on the BEBL project, the importance of partnership working together and gave us an indication of what was happening with the forthcoming education Scotland showcase event at the SECC. Rachel McAdams discussed the evaluation of the impact of free school meals in the Primary 1-Primary 3 group. To finish the conference, Gary Ennis gave an interesting talk about the dangers of social media and pointed out how much more strict we are in Scotland over seemingly innocent tweets and posts. The Awards were given out at the Gala Dinner on the Thursday evening. Awards went to:

Best stand award – Love Joes

ASSIST Catering Team of The Year 2015, sponsored by UK Foodhall, was the team from the West End Campus, Dundee

The ASSIST Cleaning Team of The Year 2015, sponsored by Arrow Supplies, was Valley Primary School, Fife

The ASSIST CROSSING PATROLLER of The Year 2015 was Pearl Rendall of Aberdeen City Council.

The ASSIST Scottish School Cook of The Year was Helen Roebuck of Stirling Council

There were two National Chair awards for 2015 given to David Cochrane of HIT Scotland and Alan Cunningham of Totalize Media. This year’s exhibition was a great success with 52 exhibitors and a record number of delegates (188), and many suppliers have already asked to have stands reserved for next year!

Alistair McIntyre, the new national Chair of the organisation, summed up the conference thanking the superb speakers as well as the partner suppliers, and Conference sponsor Muller-Wiseman, for all their support. He laid out his plans for the next three years and stated. ‘One thing is for certain is that as an industry we have got many excellent dedicated staff who want to do their best for their local authority. And really that’s what ASSIST as an organisation wants too – we want to help our members – to give them information, and a sounding block to air their challenges, to give them opportunities to highlight their skill sets, and to shout about the successes that many of our organisations deliver. I hope and I am sure that the good work that ASSIST has done over the last 15 years will carry on for many years to come.’.

ASSIST Conference 25th/26th August 2016

Glasgow City Hotel and Grand Central Hotel, Glasgow

The annual conference will be held in Glasgow for a sixth year. The ASSIST Conference has become the premier Conference for FM suppliers within the Scottish Local authorities. The theme for the conference is ‘Innovation’ in keeping with the fact that it is The Scottish Government’s Year of Innovation. The format will remain as last year’s conference – with the supplier exhibition taking place on Day One from 12 noon to 4pm (in the Glasgow City Hotel Ballroom). The delegate sessions on Day One will take place in the Robert Burns Suite in the same hotel, whilst the delegate sessions on Day Two will be in the Grand Central Hotel. (The Glasgow City Hotel is situated at the following address – Cambridge Street Glasgow G2 3HN – website address; www.thehotelcollection.co.uk/hotels/glasgow-city-hotel We do hope that you will be able to join us at the ASSIST Conference 2016.

If you wish to attend as a delegate or as an exhibitor please contact alanc@totalizemedia.co.uk

The 18th Annual ASSIST FM Conference took place in the Hilton Glasgow on the 23rd and 24th August 2018 and it was the biggest conference yet with more delegates and suppliers attending than ever before.We kicked off our delegate seminars on Thursday morning with an opening address from ASSIST FM’s chair, Keith Breasley, welcoming delegates from all over Scotland to the conference. Our Keynote speaker Cleland Sneddon, CEO of Argyll & Bute Council who presented his vision for Argyll & Bute, how young people are at the heart of the council’s outcomes and what Argyll & Bute are doing to support young people to become agents for change. He also touched on national strategies, the role of Facilities Management and challenges for Facilities Management going forward.

Cleland Sneddon, CEO of Argyll & Bute Council

Last month saw the annual ASSIST FM Conference come to Glasgow in its 19th year with the theme of ‘Watchers on the Wall’ tying together the TV phenomenon, Game of Thrones, and the role that ASSIST FM plays in watching over its services and protecting them in difficult conditions.

On day one, Dr Jeremy Leach presented to a packed out seminar on his Nudge Theory which looks at ‘how to nudge people using behavioural sciences’ and how to apply this to the FM sector. Jeanette Orrey MBE followed, delving into her impressive career from dinner lady to the founder of Food for Life and becoming a commissioner on Food and Poverty with the Fabian Society in 2015. Dr Colin Espie, Professor of Sleep Medicine from the University of Oxford presented on ‘What is Sleep and Why Does it Matter?’, providing an insightful look into the importance of sleep and the workplace. The seminars then concluded with an emotional and inspirational session from Nigel Owens MBE, the Welsh international Rugby Referee who truly captivated the audience.

The feedback from delegates was fantastic and Sue Nield of Highland Council said that “I especially enjoyed the speakers this year, the messages they shared are especially important due to the ever-challenging climates ahead.”

After the seminar, delegates were invited to attend the biggest ASSIST FM Conference Exhibition to date, with more suppliers in attendance than ever before, including a number of organisations new to the event such as Nespresso Professional and The Scottish Salmon Company. ASSIST FM also continued with their fantastic initiative backed by Hobart UK and Brakes Scotland to get the exhibitors to donate any unconsumed stock to a local food bank, combating food waste as well as supporting a local cause.

Jason McKeon from Unilever Food Solutions described the Conference as a “Great opportunity to chat with Local Authorities, Buyers, Industry leaders and decision-makers over 2 days” and “the best in class industry event for FM in the UK by a mile.”

Day two saw an update for Local Authorities from Education Scotland delivered by Shirley Beattie which sparked great discussion from the delegates in attendance. Paul Fletcher and Kevin Onanu from Achieve More Scotland spoke about their work to tackle poverty and ‘enable the life chances and health and wellbeing of young people and families at risk’. Catherine Agnew, Chief Inspector for Children at the Care Inspectorate discussed the role of the Care Inspectorate and the upcoming partnership that will be developed between the Care Inspectorate and Local Authority FM services. Gary Ennis of NS Design provided a compelling crash course in getting the most out of Social Media and the importance of developing your online presence. Most notably though was the presentation from Dr John McKendrick of Glasgow Caledonian University where he shared the research findings that himself and a team of students have been working on for ASSIST FM on issues pertaining to School Meals Provision in Scotland. The research will be published by Glasgow Caledonian University and ASSIST FM in the coming months.

The ASSIST FM Conference 2019 was a fantastic and informative event that has become unsurpassable for the Facilities Management sector in Scotland.

Due to the Covid-19 outbreak, we have unfortunately had to take the decision to postpone our 20th annual ASSIST FM Conference. We’ll be back next, from the 26-27th August, with our full conference and supplier exhibition which has become the premier event for FM Suppliers in the 32 Scottish Local Authorities.

Further information about our 2021 conference will be announced in due course and in the meantime our ASSIST FM committee is working hard to keep our members informed about how the Facilities Management sector is being impacted by the virus.

We have held webinars for our Local Authority members and our suppliers, and will aim to host further online events as we receive more information from our colleagues in the Scottish Government and public sector organisations. Information about any future ASSIST FM events will be circulated with our members and suppliers when the details have been finalised.

Due to the pandemic, we have also put our National Awards and Scottish School Cook of the Year competition on hold until further notice, but we will be looking to celebrate our staff who have been so vital in ensuring that our most vulnerable and shielding pupils are still benefiting from our service at our future events.

Please don’t hesitate to get in touch with us if you have any questions both about the ASSIST FM Conference or about how the pandemic is impacting our sector. We hope to see you at one of our future events, both online and offline, and look forward to working together with you to get through this uncertain time.