NWAA Chairman’s autumn statement By Prof Andy Schofield
By Paula Gill NWAA Chief Exec’s autumn statement
CONTENTS
02 Chairman’s statement
Welcome to Autumn, Did you hear...
Our next ESG events:
Program News
A very warm welcome to the latest edition of the Plane Talk Magazine. Since the last edition, life within the NWAA continues to be very busy. I think the two most significant activities in June were the visit to the Paris Airshow where key connections were made and the decision to have a presence at next year’s Farnborough International Airshow. This will be the first time since 2018 that the NWAA will have a stand at the Airshow, and it will provide a great opportunity for our members to showcase their capabilities. Look out for more details shortly of how to get involved. Another activity that has been ongoing is the Membership Survey. Your feedback and views are extremely important to us as we continue to focus on the main purpose of the NWAA, which is to deliver value to every member of the North West Aerospace Alliance by providing the opportunity to network, collaborate and promote their capabilities both in the UK and Internationally to increase future business opportunities. The initial feedback from the survey has provided us with a number of aspects to follow up on and areas to focus on. If you have not yet had chance to provide your feedback or not received the survey I would encourage you to contact the membership team membership@aerospace. co.uk, as I am very keen to hear the voice and opinions of our membership. As I mentioned in the last edition of Plane Talk, we are actively looking to increase our membership. This has grown by nearly 25% over the last year and is a positive indication of helping to build a strong network and community. I continue to encourage new companies to see how they can benefit from membership of the NWAA.
Progress continues to be made on the contracted work. The Lancashire Advanced Engineering and Manufacturing Watchtower Programme is progressing well, and a great piece of work has been completed by the Sector Growth task force group, which aims to ensure the Advanced Engineering and Manufacturing Sector in the North West is at the forefront of future market opportunities, such as Nuclear, Space and Hydrogen as well as the established sectors, such as Aerospace and Defence and Automotive. Also, together with the IN4 Group, the skills bootcamp programme, aimed at developing digital skills in our regional supply chain, is taking shape. The future is bright, and the opportunities are there, however, there are several challenges that need to be overcome. I continue to remain positive in helping to drive the Aerospace and Defence Industry in the North West forward. Finally, I’d like to give a big shout out to one of our NWAA Board Members, Jeff Cheetham, who successfully completed the National 3 Peaks Challenge in July. Considered to be one of Britain’s toughest outdoor challenges, Jeff and the team climbed Ben Nevis, Scafell Pike, and Snowdon in under 24 hours. A fantastic achievement for a great charitable cause.
Airbus, Broughton BAE, Samlesbury
October 19th November 24th
The Watchtower program continues to be a great success and has caught the attention of the UK. It is being talked about around meeting tables in the capital and across other regions and particularly in the OEM’s, some of whom have interacted with businesses during the program. The businesses who are actively in the program are being identified as the future supply chain for the AEM sector and many new business/work opportunities and support for funding amongst other benefits have been won. It is great to see so many businesses embracing the actions from the program and reaping the rewards. There is still time to join the Watchtower if you have not benefitted from it already and I would love to see how many of you we can show case at the end of program first Celebration evening. SCS is now underway, and you will soon see the information start rolling out from us and across the UK. The self-assessment tool link will shortly be hosted on our website and our assessors will be ready to help support you on the journey to supply chain excellence. I look forward to seeing you soon, and remember my door is always open and my phone is always on.
03 CEO’s statement
WE ARE GOING TO FARNBOROUGH!! But first let me give you a couple of updates... Following a very successful summer period (albeit wet for most of us), it has been an incredibly busy period. We continue to build on our member relationships and are very happy with the attendances at the networking events such as the Mix and Mingle that have taken place. There have been many connections made and opportunities created at these events, so we will continue with these activities moving forward with the next Mix & Mingle event coming up at Airbus Broughton site with our Welsh colleagues on 19th October. This will directly follow the NWAA ESG #3 event hosted by Airbus on the same day. We are also in discussion to deliver the same opportunity with our other colleagues around the UK so I will keep you posted on these as they are agreed. The trip to Paris Airshow to meet some of our members and to create more opportunities in the Northern region was a great success. It was a pleasure to see the buoyancy of the industry and the excitement mounting, as activities and new orders ramped up throughout the week, with some great activities and wins for our regions businesses. We are following up on many discussions with members and primes whilst at the Paris airshow, to bring OEM’s and meet the buyer events to the region in the coming periods. Look out for these events! ESG and digitalization remains a key focus too, and through great collaboration with the Primes, our members have the opportunity to have firsthand information and support on what is coming next in the sustainability journey and how we can all work together to meet these industry needs, challenges and changes.
04 Members’ News
Do not forget to go to the website and book yourselves onto these events, they are already filling up fast! Did I mention... WE ARE GOING TO FARNBOROUGH!! Very exciting news, NWAA have now booked a stand at Farnborough International Airshow. We have partnered with Composites UK to enable us to have a great stand for our members to showcase their businesses capabilities and will ensure that buyers are coming to meet you on the stand throughout the week. The pods have already started to be booked by some early birds and our intention is that the stand design allows all the pods to be visible to visitors and meetings are encouraged and catered for. We are very excited by the interest in regions businesses, and I will personally be arranging Prime interactions for pod holders only, on the stand on a daily basis. If the world wants to meet the best, then I will be showing them where to come! If you are interested in joining us on the stand at Farnborough, please contact the team as soon as possible membership@aerospace. co.uk. We will work on a first come, first served principle to make sure everyone has the chance to select their pod early.
15 Black Tie Charity Ball
16 Members’ News
18 NWAA News
19 Save the date
20 Annual Ball 23
Prof Andy Schofield NWAA Chairman
Paula Gill NWAA Chief Exec
It’s nearly time for ‘The Annual Ball’
The Annual Ball promises to be very exciting this year. We are trying out a new venue at Crow Wood Hotel and Spa. A fantastic location if you are looking to have an extra day with a loved one relaxing in the fabulous Spa the day after an amazing night full of music and laughter at the Ball. More information will follow, but booking has started in earnest and tables, tickets and sponsorship are already selling fast, so do not miss this one, it promises to be very well attended ANNUAL BALL.
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