YOUR ASSOCIATION | PPC100 August 2020

Over time, BPCA Forums have evolved from small member meetings in an evening, to regularly seeing audiences of over 80, exhibitor tables, a full morning of speakers and a calendar of at least ten events per year across the UK.

Lockdown dramatically altered the event landscape but we didn’t want to end these valuable meetings.

With this in mind, our Staff team worked hard to bring Forums to you in a different format, and so they evolved once more and our new Digital Forum was born!

We’ve held three of these successful online events, and you’ve logged on in your hundreds from the comfort of your home offices, armchairs and sun loungers.

Digital Forums allow you to ask questions and answer quick polls, so it really is an interactive event. We’ve even had a mini-pest-pub quiz!

“...excellent! Interesting topics and speakers. I was engaged from start to finish. Great job!"

Feedback on the events has been positive, with many people saying that they were able to participate in a Forum for the first time, as location was no longer an obstacle.

The attendance figures certainly bear this out. And there was a consensus that Forums of this style should continue in the future, regardless of whether the country is in a lockdown or not.

With that in mind, watch this space for announcements about Digital Forum 4!

It gets better and better.

Great speakers

Technology can be fickle but a few sound issues aside, the meetings have gone without a hitch and the speakers have been very well received.

Our first Digital Forum featured Guernsey’s Asian Hornet Team talking about their Spring Queening strategy, tips from BPCA’s Natalie Bungay on keeping busy during downtime and entomologist Dr Matthew Davies explaining insect structure and function.

The second Digital Forum featured even more industry stalwarts, like Sharon Hughes and her talk on pulse baiting, Beegone’s Peter Higgs and his honeybees presentation and PelGar’s Alex Wade, with a pun-tastic ‘lesser of two weevils’ talk.

There were also very relevant talks on PPE from Stallard Kane and providing a service during Covid-19 from Barrettine.

By the third Digital Forum we were really getting into the swing of it, as were the speakers. Lodi’s Tony Knight gave a very well-received presentation on bed bugs, while Natalie Bungay provided a refresher on bees and wasps.

And popular speaker and insect expert Clive Boase’s insect behaviour and biology talk was a hit.

Killgerm’s Rob Simpson also provided a useful insight into alternatives to Ficam W, given its current status and the worry among technicians regarding how to control flying insects like wasps in the future.

At the end of all of these events, BPCA’s Chief Exec Ian Andrew has been providing a consistent update on Covid-19 and its effects on the pest management industry.

Keep up-to-date with event news

For all the latest upcoming BPCA events, visit our website.
bpca.org.uk/events

Source: PPC100