BIFAlink December 2021

BIFAlink

Industry Promotion

www.bifa.org

The BIFA Freight Forwarder Village, a new introduction, proved a great success with support from many Members and Associates Multimodal is back!

After delays caused by the various lockdowns and general restrictions on mixing, October 2021 finally saw the MultiModal Exhibition open its doors to the logistics industry at the National Exhibition Centre in Birmingham. A new innovation this year was the BIFA Freight Forwarder Village, with many BIFA Members and Associates located around the central BIFA stand. For the first time, BIFA and the event organiser, Clarion Events, provided a low-cost exhibition option via Logistics Pods or ‘LogPods’ as they have become known. Footfall was brisk as soon as the doors opened on the Tuesday, with many BIFA Members stopping by to say hello. On the BIFA stand, Carl Hobbis and Liz Sumner were able to demonstrate the new online BIFA CDS training course that has been developed to assist people to make the forthcoming transition away from CHIEF, while

Robert Windsor was kept busy with technical questions about the new procedures for dealing with the EU. In addition, BIFA events organiser Sharon Hammond and BIFA Director General, Robert Keen were present. Seminar programme BIFA also took part in the seminar programme. The key topic was the aftermath of EU Exit and what further changes are in the pipeline. Robert Windsor’s presentation ‘EU Exit, the past and the future’ took attendees through the process changes already in place and what will happen in January and July next year. Robert often used to say, when asked what would happen with Brexit, that, “less goods will move, more slowly and will cost more” and his prediction has come to pass. On day three of the exhibition, BIFA was represented in the career development seminars

with Carl Hobbis, Training and Development Manager, moderating the session ‘How to implement a successful apprenticeship scheme’. Finally, we were involved with the session ‘What does the next generation want from a career in logistics’, chaired by Think Logistics. Given the limitations on movement and mixing over the last 18 months, there was a general good feeling at being able to meet industry colleagues again, with over 800 people attending the Multimodal awards dinner. An abiding

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December 2021

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