ICA Round Table event June 2016 hosted by Midcounties

Midcounties hosted the Alliance CEO Roundtable (CRT) and Campaign Pilot Countries event on 5-6th June 2016 at our Head Office in Warwick, UK

The Co-operative Round Table is a world forum for senior executives and board leaders from leading national and local co-operatives in all business sectors.  It is founded on the belief that co-operatives benefit when their leadership has the opportunity to engage in world class discussions on issues facing their businesses.  By bringing together the leaders of primary cooperatives the Roundtable will identify both longstanding and emerging issues of importance to the co-operative business community.  Members will prioritise issues and provide direction on further research or analysis.  Roundtable members also participate in developing business intelligence and in shaping and implementing global Policy.

The 5th July meeting brought together the main CRT members with delegates coming from Canada, Finland, Israel, Spain, Switzerland and USA.  The discussions covered were the Directory and Business Referral System, presented by the Israeli delegates, The Co-op Exchange – a programme put together by Howard Brodsky of USA and ending with taking a step back to look at major trends and strategies by Charles Gould, Director General, ICA.

6th July

The day commenced with a site visit to Midcounties flagship store in Chipping Norton.

On returning to the Head Office the meeting was joined by ‘Pilot Country’ representatives from Canada, China, India, Italy, Jamaica, Japan and the UK.  These representatives are members of the Alliance but are not part of the CRT with the idea being that they will help plan and deliver a global marketing campaign to assist with the collection of business intelligence etc to be fed back into the CRT.

This session was led by Howard Brodsky and covered:

• Global Marketing Campaign
• Implementation Strategies
• Website

Both meetings were well represented with all delegates leaving with a positive sense of achievement.  It is anticipated, if possible, that a follow-up meeting will take place in Quebec in October.

All delegates thanked Midcounties for their kind hospitality and the time and effort that goes in to organising an event of this nature.