Our Chairman David Thornton attended the industry’s annual Glazing Summit last week and, as one of only a handful of installers in the room, gave his perspective on the day.

“I was impressed by GGP editor Chris Beck as MC – he was warm and welcoming and set the tone for the day, which was that this is a fantastic industry, filled with people doing great things – whether that’s in design, training, product development, marketing or sustainability – and we should all perhaps take a little more pride in the vital contribution we make to where people live and work.

“Fundamentally, the Glazing Summit is a day for learning and networking though. In terms of learning, I thought the presentation on the economic outlook from the Bank of England’s Glynn Jones was useful – albeit a bit vague and non-committal. The industry report from Insight Data’s Andrew Scott was interesting, as was the insight into consumer trends from Charlotte Hawkes at Keystone Research – particularly the fact younger homeowners are now the most likely group to invest in new windows and doors.

“As a large-scale installer with a turnover approaching £10m, the presentation from Simon Jarman of Clever Bean Accounting on getting control of your numbers and identifying profit leaks didn’t feel particularly relevant, but I would hope that all the suppliers in the room absorbed his advice and are ready to share that with their smaller scale customers – who presumably were too busy out fitting windows and door to attend!

“During the skills debate, I thought there were some really good points made by John Mannell at the GGF on the value of apprenticeships and the scope of the support available.  From a purely selfish point of view, and thinking about some of the father and son fitting teams we work with, it was good to hear him say that efforts are being made to finally let self-employed fitting teams access government support for formal training schemes.

“Interestingly, Jon Vanstone who is Chair of the Industry Competence committee for the Building Safety Regulator, had to make clear that the views in his presentation on the UK’s regulatory system for building were his own and not yet government policy. However, I think we could take a lot from what he said about what the new ‘Super Regulator’ is likely to mean for the industry in terms of Building Control, Health & Safety and Competence Persons – and we will certainly ensure that this business is prepared for the changes to come.

“There wasn’t very much useful to take from Gerald Ratner’s extremely entertaining finish to the day – except perhaps that it’s easy to get a face to face appointment with your Bank Manager once you owe £1bn!

“Overall, I think it was worth a day out of the office to attend, particularly in terms of networking.  I had some good meetings with several suppliers and representatives from various industry bodies – and I was at least able to ensure that the voice of the installer was represented.

“If I were going to give the organisers any feedback to carry forward to next year’s summit, it would just be this:

• Keep the sales pitch to the exhibition area. It undermines the value of the presentation and the debate if it’s delivered from the stage!
• And why not add a theatre style recall system to get the delegates back into the room after the breaks? (Too much time was wasted waiting for people to assemble back in their seats.)

“I’ll be back next year to see how it has all involved.”