FIA Conference and FLAME Awards 2010

Well. FLAME has come and gone and I personally feel that all I want to do is find a hole somewhere and sleep for a week.

A fair number of the 700 plus attendees have told me that it was a great success – complimenting everything from the calibre of the speakers, to the new ‘fruit & food grazing’ feeding arrangements.
For me, it was (as always) great to see and meet up with so many old faces - and new. But what really excited me was the attendees’ hunger for knowledge for information on subjects which, even a couple of years ago, would have only attracted enough people for a five-a-side team, let alone pack a room. Topics ranging from applying psychology to our delivery models, to the importance of data, the value of social media and the whole issue of ‘exercise as medicine’ filled session after session.

Thinking about this, as well as the calibre of FLAME Award winners and runners up suggests that there is a real and very tangible sea change in our industry. Everywhere I looked and every conversation I had gave me the feeling that people are taking everything we do and improving it by 50% - whether it’s the graphics on kit or its phenomenal capacity to record and interpret data: whether it’s new programmes which are reaching deeper and more consistently into communities, or the phenomenal work currently being done by a handful of organisations with GPs and health professionals.

Now, this isn’t a cheap plug for the TwentyTen Commission, but there are pockets of excellence throughout our industry; just think of the contribution we could make to the nation (and our own bottom line), if we collated best practice, shared it and used it as a springboard for improving what we do and how deeply we engage with our respective communities. The catalyst to that is the Commission, but the drivers to that are you.

Thinking about drivers makes me think about ‘Movers and Shakers’ ... wait ‘till you see the pics from the Awards ... think Strictly Come Dancing ... then think John Sergeant!
Need I say more ... I don’t think I should, or there will be no greeting of ‘old faces and new’ next year.

Click here to see a sample of the photo's from the event.

David Stalker, Executive Director at FIA