This year’s BMF annual Members’ Conference will now be held as a half day ‘virtual event’ on 17 September — and training will form a key part of the programme.
In addition to speaker sessions packed full of informative content — including an hour devoted to Building a Sustainable Britain, featuring the Rt. Hon. John Gummer, Lord Deben (the longest serving Secretary of State for the Environment the UK has ever had), and Megan Adlen, Head of Sustainability for Travis Perkins — the Virtual Conference offers delegates an opportunity to get a taste of some of the BMF’s latest training programmes and member services.
One of the training “taster” sessions will be hosted by the day’s Keynote Speakers, two sporting heroes of Team GB — the Olympic medallists Steve Backley OBE and Roger Black MBE.
Steve Backley is the only British track and field competitor to win medals at three different Olympic Games – Barcelona, Atlanta and Sydney. When he finally hung up his javelin at the 2004 Olympics in Athens, he was still one of the world’s best, placing fourth in the final. Roger Black represented Team GB for 14 years as an individual 400 metre runner and as a member of the 4x400m relay team. During his career, he successfully overcame serious injuries and setbacks to win 15 major Championship medals.
Today, Steve and Roger are not only accomplished and entertaining motivational speakers, they have also teamed up to develop Mind-Setting — a new online coaching programme to help individuals optimise their performance.
The duo identified and modelled the key skills and habits from sport and of successful people from other fields, converting them into practices that anyone can learn and apply to everyday life. The programme is delivered via e-learning in bite-sized pieces to encourage daily training and implementation.
You can find out more about Mind-Setting at one of the 30-minute taster sessions at the BMF’s Virtual Members Conference.
Other training taster sessions will be led by BMF Membership Services Director, Richard Ellithorne, who will give an overview of the new suite of online courses developed since the start of the year, and by Sue Reed, who will give examples of Leadership courses that help individuals develop skills to lead themselves and their business teams.
Sue is a Learning Development Governor within the Institute of Builders Merchants as well as a Fellow of the Institute of Sales Management. She is also one of the BMF’s most popular trainers, with a passion for developing individuals and discovering skills and abilities they never knew they had.
With recent Government announcements of increased financial support to encourage the provision and take-up of apprenticeships, there is even more incentive to invest in training the next generation of merchants. In a highly topical service taster session, BMF Apprenticeship Manager, Carmen Daly will focus on BMF’s Apprenticeship Plus service, which removes the administrative stress of engaging and managing apprentices and also provide an update on the new BMF Level 5 Management Apprenticeship incorporating the Diploma in Merchant Management.
The final session will be led by BMF Service Member and business partner, Trustpilot. The review platform gives companies the tools to track and analyse customer satisfaction and merchants will gain insight about their customers’ experience and identify trends and patterns in feedback — something which is even more critical in these changing times.
To find out more about the BMF’s one day Virtual Classroom courses and half-day Webinars, check out the Training section of the BMF website at www.bmf.org.uk or email paige.godsell@bmf.org.uk
To book your place for the virtual BMF AGM & Business Conference on 17 September 2020, contact June.Upton@bmf.org.uk or visit the BMF website.
