IABM UK Industry Update Meeting Highlights Need for Skills Transformation

IABM UK Industry Update Meeting Highlights Need for Skills Transformation 01 July 2014

An impressive list of key influencers and leading companies from within the broadcast industry attended our latest UK Industry Update Meeting last Thursday at a sunny Wokefield Park in Reading.

Like the title suggests, the Industry Update Meetings are informative and informal gatherings that provide attendees with the most up to date knowledge and news from across the broadcast industry. The IABM team share their expertise on the latest market intelligence, give insight into new and emerging areas of business focus and encourage discussions and debate around current and future trends.

At Thursday's event, our chief executive, Peter White, opened the day by introducing the key findings and results from the IABM's popular business intelligence reports. Headlines from the report included the latest Industry Index which provided a positive outlook for the market 17% of companies in the sector are in profit and that two thirds had been in profit for the past two years.

One of the main discussions during the day focused on skills and learning as the IABM team revealed the results of the Skills Survey. The results highlighted that companies across the board still feel there is a skills shortage in the broadcast industry. The survey also revealed that the biggest constraint in fulfilling orders within the industry is unfortunately due to the lack of certified and qualified workers in the industry.

These sentiments were echoed by attendees in a poll conducted during the first interactive exercise at the event. The results confirmed that transformation and reskilling are a number one technology or business challenge facing companies right now.Huw Davis from the BBC Academy added to the discussion by providing a refreshing perspective on how the industry can address the skills gap. Huw shared the corporation's experiences and gave a unique insight into the success of the BBC's Engineering Apprenticeship Scheme which has delivered a fantastic pool of talent for the industry.

One of the key fun facts from the day was that 80% of what people hear in 20 minutes tends to be forgotten. Well, the good news is that the attendees at the meeting will now be able to combat this following a fascinating accelerated learning exercise from one of our new training partner's, Zoom Training, who are offering several training opportunities to help combat the shortage of certified professionals in the industry.

Other contributors to the day included social media guru Jamie Barlow from Stop and Stare Marketing, who provided a fascinating deep dive into social media and digital communications. Ewa Johnson from Vodafone Global Enterprise also took to the stage presenting top tips on how to be a socialite' and gave a vital snapshot into how companies can get their online presence right.

The day wrapped up with an update session on one of the industry's favourite subjects, technology trends. File-based delivery was at the top of the agenda with discussions focused on the huge impact it will have on the broadcast industry during 2014.

The finale revealed the findings of the live event poll which disclosed the views and opinions from the delegates throughout the day. The results showed that the biggest challenge and opportunity being driven by new technology will be the transition from hardware to software as the industry embraces more IT-based products and systems. The last results from the poll demonstrated, unsurprisingly, that the consumer is still king, as the majority of attendees feel it will be the consumer product companies who will be the main driver of overall changes in the industry in the foreseeable future.

LINK:	http://www.theiabm.org/news/news_detail.iabm-uk-industry-update-meetin...
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