Tame the flame - were you there?

Now that I and the FIA team have recovered from Flame jetlag, we can look back and reflect on the experience. I’ve said it already by a big thank you to everyone who attended Flame Conference 2012 in Sheffield last month and made it such a brilliant event. Thank you also to everyone who has passed on their feedback about the events, both negative and positive. We do use these comments to make Flame better every year (although the dozen or so of you who pointed out too me that the Ball of Fire was too hot may have overestimated the team’s ability to regulate the weather!)

Although the Ball of Fire did live up to its name, the glorious weather in what has been the wettest summer ever made for an excellent pre-conference Golf Day at Tankersley Manor Golf Club, and some impressive final results from our enthusiastic golf teams including a hole in one for DLL’s Paul Batty.

That evening we returned to Tankersley Manor for a pre-conference drinks reception and dinner, where we enjoyed some astounding evening entertainment from comic magician Ian Keable, who to my (and everyone else’s!) disbelief, hypnotised some of the industry’s finest – or did he?

The following day delegates arrived early for the Flame Conference at the Magna Science Adventure Centre. We heard a huge range of speakers including SAS hero Chris Ryan, trend-spotter Henry Mason, neuroscientist Dr Jack Lewis and brand guru Shaun Smith.

That evening Ponds Forge International played host to the FIA Ball of Fire for the Flame Awards ceremony. A highlight of the evening for me was inviting former England rugby player Matt Hampson to address guests. I’ve mentioned before that my team bought be a copy of Matt’s memoir, ‘Engage’ for my last birthday, and it is a truly brilliant read. The Matt Hampson Foundation (MHF) is the FIA’s nominated charity, formed by Matt after he was left paralysed by an accident whilst training for England under 21s. The MHF helps support young people suffering serious injury or disability, particularly those sustained through sport or physical activity. Speaking about his experience with such humour and positivity, Matt received a standing ovation, and I know that his is a cause our sector is well and truly behind.

Guests were all very generous in donating to the MHF through our silent auction and charity prize; I was pleased to announce today that we raised over £5000 for the charity.

Another highlight, as always, was seeing the reaction of the winners of our Flame Awards 2012 (sponsored by Matrix). Seeing just how ecstatic the teams were to win really brings home the value of these awards.

All in all it really was brilliant to see so many members of our sector together and I hope that we carry forward a spirit of unity and collaboration as a sector in the coming year.

We are now gearing up for LIW in September, where as always we will be running the FIA networking hub and launching our new Supplier Directory, and following that our Summit – the sector’s set piece political event for the year. Following on from the success of the re-launched FIA summit last year I know that I am really looking forward to this event, and we already have some top speakers in the pipeline. The event will be taking place in London on 22^nd November, so get it in your diaries now; more details will be released shortly.

The political agenda is front and centre for the FIA and our sector at the moment, with the upcoming publication of a report from a Lords select committee examining the physical activity and the Olympic legacy; watch this space for further information.

We were also very encouraged by a report released this week by the Royal College of Physicians which outlines a series of recommendations for establishing exercise as a routine tool for the prevention and management of illness. This is a ground-breaking document for our sector, and I was delighted that the report on several occasions highlighted the FIA as a “key collaborator” and the Joint Consultative Forum as the body to take forward many of the recommendations of the report.  There is still much work to be done in engaging the medical community, but this is a significant and positive step forward for our sector.

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