In October, the 5th Standard Makers' Forum took place in Mayfair, London with the attendance of over 80 committee and subcommittee technical chairmen and a number of BSI British Standards staff including Mike Low, Director of BSI, Shirley Bailey-Wood, Operations Director, and Frank Post, Marketing Director.
Mike Low opened the Forum and the guest speaker was David Evans from the Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills (DIUS, formerly the DTI) who gave a very engaging presentation entitled: "The Government's approach to Innovation, Science and Technology". David spoke about the focus on the new innovation agenda and its application to business models in manufacturing and services. He also emphasized the importance of standards in the context of innovation through terminology, interoperability and delivering more effective public procurement.
The was format differed this year in order to give chairmen the chance to take part in a policy and strategy discussion about either Construction or Management Systems. Alternatively chairmen were able to drop in to an 'Information Zone' to learn more about other elements of standards development which covered: the Committee Service Centre; eCommittees; Committee Member Training; working with CEN/CENELEC and ISO/IEC; and content Developers/Editorial. Feedback showed that most committee chairmen found the event informative, enjoyable and worthwhile.
