Michelle Daniels – BiKBBI director of marketing & communication, delivers her roundup on 2021 as we look forward to 2022.
What a year 2021 has been!
This time last year, I think we were all glad to put the darkness of 2020 behind us and were hoping that 2021 would bring the promise of light at the end of the tunnel and a return to ‘normal’. And whilst it is safe to say that this year perhaps wasn’t entirely what we had hoped for, it was more a year of false starts than a clean start. However, there were some positive takeaways from the significant progress of the vaccine rollout down to the simple pleasures such as holidays abroad and a pint in an actual pub with actual real people. 2021 served up a slice of normality that we were all craving, and in order to keep moving forward, it’s important that we take the successes and hope of the past 12 months into 2022.
For me personally, 2021 was a year of huge change, leaving the only industry I’d known to enter the world of KBB. A far cry from Piccadilly Circus, on the banks of the Thames Estuary in Essex, who knew there was a small team of conscientious, dedicated, talented and totally determined individuals representing the vital, sometimes forgotten, installation community of the KBB sector. I have to say the culture of BiKBBI and the team within is pretty contagious, and after just three months, I don’t mind admitting I am totally hooked!
The organisation has achieved so much in 2021, and you would be forgiven for missing some of it. For those who want a refresher, it’s worth taking a look at our historical overview.
As the world grapples with the continued disruption of the COVID-19 pandemic and its aftershocks, helping our registered businesses, corporate members and the wider industry navigate the ever-changing landscape will remain at the heart of everything we do in 2022.
The New Year will kick off with our Annual Conference at the Houses of Parliament in February, where the agenda will focus on building a sustainable future for the KBB sector, including tackling the skills gap crisis, supply chain issues and environmental challenges impacting our industry. The conference will be followed by the sector’s first-ever awards ceremony dedicated to KBB installation, celebrating the very best talent – from young installers, installer of the year and installation business of the year – and we look forward to seeing many of you there on the night. If you’d like to join us but haven’t yet got your tickets, you can do so here.
Thinking further ahead in 2022, as well as continuing to support the industry with pandemic-related guidance, information and representation, we will continue to focus on the areas most relevant to driving change, ultimately benefitting our stakeholders and the wider industry.
We will continue our work on closing the skills gap, both in the long term with our work on apprenticeships and in the short term by growing our relationship with the Armed Forces Covenant Fund Trust. We also aim to engage with 5,000 students across the UK as part of our Careers Roadshow.
Other key objectives for the New Year include the further expansion of BiKBBI Campus, our Learning and Development platform, publishing updated Standards and Guidelines to aid our stakeholders, introducing a number of digital solutions to our business, including a mobile app and Artificial Intelligence software making it even easier for stakeholders to engage and communicate with us.
Whilst there are no certainties of when the chaos of COVID and Brexit will abate and no guarantees that 2022 will see the return of the brighter days of yesteryear, what you can be sure of is BiKBBI’s continuous focus on leadership, improvement, collaboration and innovation to drive change in our sector.
From all of us here at the British Institute of KBB Installation, I wish you all health, wealth and happiness for 2022.
