Greg Pickett- EATTA Chair
It was a great honour to be asked to take on the Chairmanship of EATTA in February 2023 by our former Chair Richard Fatkin, our Secretary and Treasurer Sheila Hutchings and the wider EATTA Committee. I’m incredibly fortunate to have the support of a committee that now comprises of no less than three former Chairs and a great blend of youth and experience! As well, of course, as Sheila providing a guiding hand and no small amount of drive to ensure that our meetings and events go off without a hitch.
During 2023 we’ve seen record interest in attending our General Meetings at Madingley Hall, Cambridge in February, Newmarket Racecourse in July and at The Belfry Hotel, Cambridge in November. This is testament to the quality of information, presentations, and networking opportunities that members have access to during these meetings and is something that we as an organization will endeavour to ensure continues. Increased interest in attending does bring its’ own challenges with the need for ever larger venues and we hope to be able to accommodate as many members as wish to participate in future meetings.
We received particularly positive feedback from our first meeting held at Newmarket Racecourse in June 23 with excellent facilities and service provided by the venue. The Committee has therefore taken the decision to return to Newmarket Racecourse again on 4th July 2024 for an afternoon meeting followed by an evening BBQ in the prestigious Hong Kong Suite and surrounding grounds and I very much hope to see as many of you there as possible for what I’m sure will be a very enjoyable day.
Speaking of enjoyable days, our Annual Dinner at King’s College, Cambridge held on 13th September was again a roaring success with over 300 people in attendance. It’s only since taking the Chair that I’ve had a real insight into just how much preparation goes into this wonderful event – from the seating plan to the menu to the timing to the minute of the speeches – it’s truly testament to Sheila’s organisational skills! Feedback from members has been nothing but positive and we look forward to replicating this success again on 18th September 2024!
This year will see the return of the Timber Market Meeting prior to the Annual Dinner in Cambridge so please keep an eye out for details on this. We hope to have a variety of expert speakers covering the UK & Irish, Scandinavian, central European and Baltic markets in attendance so it’ll be a great opportunity to keep abreast of the latest global market movements.
Also, this year we expect to hold at least one, if not two of our highly successful and informative ‘Who Teaches The Teacher’ study tours to the Nordic countries giving lecturers from regional universities first-hand insight into the sustainable sourcing and manufacture of timber products. In 2023 the study tour was once again hosted by EATTA former-Chair and Committee member Chris James, with support from the team at Timber Development UK (TDUK), who visited various forestry, sawmilling, and manufacturing sites in Norway. Thanks to Chris for giving up your time so generously!
Finally, I couldn’t not mention how delighted I was to receive the inaugural ‘Regional Association of the Year’ Award at the TDUK Dinner & Awards held in November on behalf of the entire EATTA membership. It’s testament to all the good work that we all do within the association to inform, educate, and entertain our members and wider industry stakeholders and long may this good work continue!
Wishing you all a successful year and I look forward to seeing many of you at forthcoming EATTA events.
