Events

GPS York conference 2006

Released on 20/03/2006

More than 100 delegates, speakers and exhibitors descended on York, on the first day of spring, to attend the Government Procurement Service conference 2006 - the successful first of a series of regional events, organised by the Office of Government Commerce (OGC).

About 95 per cent of the delegates who attended were new to OGC's GPS conferences, and they represented a good regional cross-section of the public sector, including 13 local borough councils and many London-based OGC customers.

A very high ratio of participants returned their feedback forms and all generally felt the OGC conference was successful, well-organised and a worthwhile gathering - 79 per cent of them felt the conference objectives were fully achieved.

OGC's Chief Executive John Oughton delivered a strong keynote speech which the delegates unanimously voted as 'relevant' - in fact, 42 per cent among them thought it to be 'very relevant'.

'As the head of the efficiency programme, I would like better procurement to secure over £8 billion of annual efficiency gains by 2008.
To put that into context, the total target for the efficiency programme is £21.5 billion annual gains - or 2.5 per cent. And the targets do not stop there.'

 - OGC Chief Executive John Oughton

Other high-level speakers and their presentations were also well-received. They included:

Chris Gallagher - Chartered Institute of Purchasing and Supply (CIPS) director of membership and education;
Keith Trower - the CIPS deputy chief executive;
Alan Dowlman - OGC's procurement development director;
Ian Taylor - Department for Education and Skills (DfES) director of the Centre for Procurement Performance (CPP);
Mike Davis - OGC's procurement policy unit deputy director; and
David Rabey - Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) director of purchasing and supply, and head of procurement and contracts.
Chris Gallagher and Keith Thrower, both from CIPS plunged in after John Oughton's keynote address to jointly to introduce to their audience, the public sector procurement professionals,

• the Chartered Institute of Purchasing and Supply (CIPS) Public Sector Faculty and
• the new CIPS qualifications.

After the coffee and tea break, OGC's Alan Dowlman reported on the Procurement Efficiency Programme - one year on.

Ian Taylor followed on to take his audience through the DfES experience of procurement efficiency.

A table discussion on CIPS and OGC's GPS facilities preceded a scrumptious lunch at the elegant Royal York Hotel, where the conference was held.

OGC's Mike Davis took the reins after lunch to communicate an EU update on new regulations. Mike was responsible for implementing the new EU public procurement directive in the UK, after being involved in its negotiations in Brussels.

Then Defra's David Rabey gave a presentation on sustainable procurement, before we reflected on the day's proceedings and looked ahead on what the future holds for public procurement.

A useful networking tea rounded off a successful and worthwhile day for the GPS York conference, on Monday, March 20, 2006.

Martin Sykes
Head of Government Procurement Service

Contact details:
OGC Service Desk
Tel: 0845 000 4999
E-mail: ServiceDesk@ogc.gsi.gov.uk