The Higher Education Procurement Academy is entering a new phase, post-ITF funding, and we have arranged an exciting conference to launch this new era. The HEPA is not just for procurement managers in Finance Offices – if you manage your procurement function, or have colleagues who are involved in procurement, the chances are that the HEPA has something to offer.
The inaugural HEPA conference will be held on Thursday 9th October, at Imperial College, London and it will be chaired by “provocateur with a purpose”, Simon Fanshawe. This is the opportunity of the year for procurement managers to “think outside the box”, to network with their peers and meet some new colleagues. Vice-Chancellors, Finance Directors, IT Directors and Estates Directors are also welcome at this event, along with senior colleagues involved in procurement across the sector.
The programme and workshop choice descriptions can be found here and the conference includes Liquid Thinker Damian Hughes, a speaker at this year’s BUFDG conference, who was a great success and even now, people are still talking about him. We are very excited about this event and hope that procurement managers and their managers will want to attend – it departs from the norm, insofar as the emphasis is not on operational issues (although the workshops do cover operational successes in some institutions) and the panel session addresses the “strategic procurement” question – a frequently-used phrase, but does everyone know what it means?
As the overture to the event, we are holding a drinks reception preceded by a short chamber concert at the Royal College of Music on the evening of 8th October, 6pm – 8pm, which will be an opportunity to thank the ITF Funders, the Chair of the HEPA Steering Committee, Marcus McDonald (FD at the Royal College of Music), and all who have worked so hard to deliver the project. Click to book a place at the conference and/or the reception.
We are looking forward to meeting as many new faces as possible and to renewing many more connections.
