An Engine for Change - A Chronicle of the Engineering Council

154A CHRONICLE OF THE ENGINEERING COUNCILvisited included Lucent-Bell Laboratories and the Ford Motor Company. The findings of theMission were disseminated and the Mission report was launched at an E-Business Forumheld on 7 December at the CBI Conference Centre in London.In September 2000 the EngC Innovation Special Interest Group met at Imperial College andat Oxford University to hear about technology based spin-off companies formed as a result ofresearch activities.‘Disputes – Risks and Resolutions’ was the topic of an Industry Affiliates’ Club meeting heldin October 2000 at the offices of Lloyd’s Register of Shipping. Mark Alcock of BAE Systemswas the keynote speaker while the UK law firm, Hammond Suddards Edge, providedsponsorship and additional input.During 2001 the Industry Affiliate Network produced a number of ‘Innovation Exchange’one-day conferences with themes such as energy and materials, communications andconstruction. The IAN was then modified as part of the policy of one of the EngC’s successorbodies, the Engineering and Technology Board (ETB), to incorporate ‘ETB NetworkMembers’ and so cater for the wider interests of both industry and business partners.Interfacing with the PublicPublications, Press, National issues (environment etc)An EngC Conference was held at the Royal Society of Arts in April 1999, attended by MPs,industrialists and engineers; this was opened by Stephen Byers, Secretary of State for Tradeand Industry who, in the key-note speech, spoke on the important role that engineers had toplay in improving the competitiveness of the UK and its economy.The 5-year Marketing Campaign embodied within the ‘Engineering 2005’ strategy documentmentioned previously was postponed in 1999 through a lack of financial support. This was tohave been a joint enterprise of the Engineering Marketing Group (EMG), comprising theEngC, EEF, EMTA and the Engineering Construction Industry Training Board (ECITB), tochange the national perception of engineering, and attract youngsters into engineering. £3-5mannually was deemed necessary for a successful campaign and while EMG committed £1mand DTI offered “significant” financial support, subject to industry also contributingsignificantly, unfortunately Industry did not respond, the economic climate and manymillennium-related projects having diverted attention elsewhere.However, the EngC’s own marketing capability was strengthened during 1999 byrestructuring and re-staffing the marketing and public affairs functions and setting up a newDirectorate of Marketing and Public Affairs (DMPA) in the summer. Brian O’Neill, thePublic Affairs Director in post at the time, headed the new DMPA and it was intended topromote a more commercially focussed culture throughout the EngC. This reorganisation wassaid to have saved over £100,000 annually and enabled registration fees to be frozen for theyear 2000.Engineering First, the EngC’s newspaper that had been sent to all Registrants twice a yearsince February 1998, appeared in the following February with a greater number of pages (12)and with the innovative addition of advertisements for products and services of benefit toprofessional engineers and technicians. In August 2000 Engineering First was published in a© Engineering Council UK 2004