September 2018: APSE 2018 Annual Seminar
Karen and Laura ventured a trip to Edinburgh last week to join in the APSE Annual Seminar and Awards event. The 2-day conference took place at the beautfiul Assembly Rooms which was an ideal venue to deliver some well considered keynotes across the theme Greener, Cleaner, Smarter and for key partners to showcase products and services to support the excellent work being done by local authority teams across the UK.
The programme featured insights from Head of Waste Infrastructure Welsh Government, Zero Waste Scotland, Centre of Local Economic Strategies (CLES) and CIPFA among others from councils large and small in England, Scotland, Wales and Ireland. A full list of speakers and topics can be found at the APSE website.
The range of services on offer varied from Catering solutions including samples of Gluten-Free Bisto Gravy through to litter bins and driver licensing checks. From our own point of view it was an great opportunity to further raise awareness of AMX within the Public Sector and reach new markets in terms of Grounds, Parks, Fleet as well as Highways, Winter Maintenance and Flood & Drainage. Taking part in the Forum dedicated to Technial and Highways Services gave us a greater understanding of the upcoming changes with regard to the Highways Code of Practice and the impact that is likely to have. In addion to the DfT's plans for Incentive Fund changes to incorporate benchmarking of which the APSE Performance Networks research forms a fundamental part.
The pinnacle of the event, with over 400 participants, was the Awards ceremony to acknowledge the strategy, positive impact and professionalism of local teams that entered one of the 23 award categories. As first timers to the event we didn't quite know what to expect and were welcomed by the team from East Riding of Yorkshire Council during the celebrations which included their successful recognition for Best Service Team of the Year in Sports Leisure and Cultural Service - led by Adrian Walters. All the winning awards and projects can be seen at the APSE Website.
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We're certainly impressed with the organisation of the APSE team to put on such a professional and positive event with excellent content and plenty of networking opportunities. We're looking forward to putting our name down again for next year and perhaps getting more involved with the organisation and public sector service as the year progresses.