The 2007 ASSIST Conference was deemed a great success by exhibitors and delegates alike.

Here are some of the comments:

Alan Brown, Ideal Services – ‘It was the best Conference yet!’

David Scialfe, AG Barr – ‘The exhibition has been great’

Charles Cooper, Jiffy Trucks – ‘Thank you for a superb event’

Michael Boyd, Meiko – ‘I expect places will be taken up quite early for next year’

Rachel Brown, Green Gourmet – ‘We had a great conference and…were able to speak to most of the Scottish authorities about our new products’

Fergus Chambers, Director, Glasgow Direct Care Services – The programme was excellent and some of the speakers were quite superb’

Margaret Gilmour, Service Manager, Stirling Council – ’It was an excellent event. The speakers on day two were especially good’The 2007 ASSIST Conference theme was The Big Picture and the speakers certainly made delegates think about some of the bigger issues. Our keynote speaker Colin Mair, Chief Executive of the Improvement Service, raised some important issues for local government in the future.

Adam Ingram, Minister for Children and Early Years, outlined some of the elements that will make up the Schools (Health Promotion and Nutrition) Scotland Act.

Simon Miller, from Best Foot Forward, gave us some interesting examples of carbon foot printing within organisations, and what climate change means for the planet.

Patrick Tansey motivated the delegates to smile through their working day. Hands up …who is still laughing like Muttley?On the second day we had an entertaining and enlightening talk from Colin Ransom on the Sunderland Council experience. Bill McGregor gave us the view from the Headteacher, whilst our final speaker, Gordon MacMillan (‘The Deliverer’) showed how obesity could be tackled outside of the school gates with the MEND Programme. The ASSIST Chair Award went to Robin Gourlay, of East Ayrshire Council, for his work on the introduction of organic food and for representing Scottish Local Authorities in such a positive light. The exhibition was a great success with 14 new suppliers attending. One of the newcomers, Innocent Smoothies, won the Best Stand award. All in all, a very successful conference. The ASSIST Committee would like to thank all delegates and suppliers for taking part.

ASSIST FM, along with Hobart UK and Brakes Scotland, masterminded a plan to reduce the food wastage from this year’s exhibition, and really help out a local organisation, Lanarkshire Community Food & Health Partnership, in the process.

Exhibitors at the ASSIST FM Conference Exhibition this year were encouraged to place any dry, chilled or frozen goods that were not used during the exhibition at designated areas in the exhibition hall so that they could be donated to local charity where the left-over food would then be donated to foodbanks across Lanarkshire.

A big thank you goes to Roger Kellow of Hobart UK for organising such a great and simple initiative that helps the people who need it most and reduced unnecessary food wastage!

The 2008 ASSIST Conference was deemed the best yet by exhibitors and delegates alike. Here are some of the comments:

Charles Cooper, NEC Trailers – ‘a great exhibition, we should do some good business from it’

Bruce Geary, Clackmannanshire Council – ’The speakers were superb’

Tom Carlton, Muller – ‘A most enjoyable conference’

Bill Kennedy. Tayside Contracts – ‘It was obvious that there was a lot of hard work put in. The conference was excellent’

The Conference theme was ‘The Final Frontier’ and although Mr Spock didn’t appear and the Chair of ASSIST, Catherine Nelson, did not get beamed up by Scotty there was a lot to talk about. Keynote speaker Lady Marie Stubbs was both thought-provoking and highly entertaining. Alastair MacNish was as controversial as usual as he spelt out his own thoughts on the Concordat. Iain Ramsay told the conference about the changes at Learning and Teaching Scotland and Fergus Chambers gave a very illuminating talk on the catering operation at the Beijing Olympics as well as plans for the 2014 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow. On the second day workshops took place with Gordon MacMillan, Charlie MacLean Bristol and Diane Leask. Toni McIlindon brought us up to date on legal implications for 2008/2009 and the conference was brought to an end by Mo Shapiro who made us all imagine problem people as dots in the distance. The exhibition was a great success with 11 new suppliers attending. 3663 won the Best Stand award. The ASSIST Chair Award went to Anne Lennie, of the City of Edinburgh Council, for services to the industry and The ASSIST Best Achiever Award was given to St Margaret’s Academy in Livingston. Andrea Bradley collected the award on behalf of the school. A terrific conference once again and the ASSIST Committee would like to thank all delegates and suppliers for taking part.

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.’.