ESSA is in the early stages of creating a 'Futures Working Group' in response to members seeking new ways in which ESSA and the industry engages with and harnesses the knowledge and influence that more and more young people are having within our businesses and our sector.  

At our last conference in December we held a session on attracting, nurturing and retaining young talented people whilst also launching our industry promotional videos.  On the same evening at our 10th Anniversary Ball we gave out our first Young Person Award.  Following this day in which we put recruitment, retention and reward centre stage, we were approached by several individuals who expressed their desire to work collaboratively with ESSA in order to harness the thoughts and ideas of this demographic.

Case in point is that we ran a panel session on the topic of attracting young talent into our industry and didn't have someone representing this demographic taking part in the session itself (I, Andrew Harrison, take full responsibility for that faux-pas).  It was too easy for me to make this mistake and moving forward, if as an association we are seeking to represent a certain group then we need to have a collective of individuals helping us steer it who themselves are from that demographic...we do it in every other area of representation as an association (electrics, H&S, logistics, technology, stand building etc).

So what and who do we need?  We need individuals to step forward or people to volunteer others from within ESSA membership to have a conversation with me about what the Futures Working Group is looking to achieve, what the potential responsibilities and commitment will be and of course, what the rewards for getting involved will be.  ESSA will be taking on the organising and facilitating (we're good at that).  The ultimate scope of this group has not been written, that's for those who wish to engage to help decide, but we do have a framework and we have projects waiting to be worked on and influenced.  We're not putting an age or job title requirement on this group, we think you'll know if you're the target.  Looking forward to receiving a few emails or calls from interested parties andrew@essa.uk.com 01442 285 808.