View from the top: Strictly Collaboration

As the dust settles on the Innovation Festival, our attention is turning towards our autumn events. In particular, Strictly Highways on the 3rd to 5th of October.

Each year the event gets bigger, with more moving parts and more to think about, as the sector is faced with greater challenges. But, as a non-profit, we have never lost sight that bringing councils and supply chains together is incredibly important and absolutely key to solving the thorny issues that we face as a sector.

Collaboration is part of our DNA, and not just our DNA, but how we work internally and externally. Last week, we had our annual ISO44001 assessment and all is very favourable for certification for the another year. Returning to Strictly, Susanne told me yesterday that Strictly Highways will be five years old this year, something we are immensely proud of.

However, proud as we are, my mind is focused on the programme for this year’s event. We will be continuing with our four pillars of Net Zero, Collaboration, Skills, and of course Innovation. But this year, I want to showcase more than ever the importance of working collaboratively in each of these themes. I have been encouraging our regional groups to think about what they can contribute and what they’d like to see – last year I was pretty tough about trying to ensure that the items on last year’s agenda were local authority driven. Why did I do this? Because that is the resounding message I heard and continue to hear, along with requests to introduce new speakers and those we rarely hear from in Councils.

So, if you are a Local Authority, I want to hear about what you want to listen to, which collaborations and topics with supply chain should be showcased? And to our associate members if you are working successfully around complex collaborations with your Local Authority partner, please encourage them to speak about it and ask them to contact me. I’m sure this year we’ll be oversubscribed again with requests but that’s great and I’ll be working with our board to finalise the programme.

Visit the Strictly Highways website here.