I am just back from the CBI (Confederation of British Industry) conference, the first time I have been invited.  It certainly had plenty of high profile attendees, with CEOs of many of the UK’s largest companies.  Moreover the speaker list was hard to top, with in-person attendance from Gordon Brown, Bertie Ahern (Taoiseach of Ireland), US Treasury Secretary Henry Paulsen and a certain Tony Blair.  David Cameron was supposed to be there but elected to head off for a photo-op in Iraq at the last minute (a rather curious piece of timing that presumably is supposed to signal that the new Tories are not in the pockets of business, or some such political gesture).  Business speakers included luminaries such as Lakshmi Mittal (the richest man in Britain) and the European head of Google, Nikesh Arora, along with assorted top CEOs. 

A major theme was the rise of China and India as global economic powers, and what this meant for British Industry.  In 1820 China and India accounted for 40% of the world’s economic output, and at the present rate they will do again by 2025. In case you thought China was all about low-cost manufacturing, China Mobile was revealed by Martin Sorrel to be the world’s fourth most powerful brand in a new WPP survey, with a little matter of 268 million subscribers.   The sheer scale of China can be hard to take in, as I discovered when I went to Shanghai earlier this year.  There are 184 cities in China with population of over 1 million people, and according to one panelist the premier of China reckons that there may be 1.5 billion people now in China instead of the conventionally quoted figure of 1.3 billion.  The notion of 200 million people popping in as a form of rounding error speaks volumes to the scale of the place.

As well as the China and India theme there was discussion on energy security and the changes of ownership of companies through globalisation.  In Tony Blair’s session he emphasised how important education was, revealing that 7 million adults in Britain have a reading age below that of an average 11 year old child.  I would like to point out that,  that, perhaps not by coincidence, this is also the exact audience figure for the X Factor.  Blair’s session was primarily Q&A, which he handled with his characteristic aplomb and good humour.  He even remembered my name when I asked him a question - a smooth operator. 

The conference itself was held in the slightly odd setting of the British Design Centre in Islington, which as a venue leaves quite a bit to be desired.  I felt a couple of drops of rain come through the roof, and there seem to be two small toilets for the entire place, which are reached down a maze of ill-lit corridors that look like the sort of ones you walk down when exiting a dodgy cinema into a dark alley.  Security was understandably tight, but less forgiveable were the grand total of four staff issuing badges at reception, resulting in long queues, while a crowd of other staff at a vastly over-manned nearby desk for press stood around chatting to each other and generally being as useful as a chocolate teapot. 

The lunch appeared to be arranged by someone from a Soviet-era canteen.  There were half a dozen identical areas with food, but instead of guests just forming a short queue at each we were shepherded to the end of a long corridor and then formed a single very, very long queue for one section while the other sections remained empty “until the first one runs out of food” as it was carefully explained by a manageress who perhaps was an Aeroflot stewardess in a previous job. 

It does seem odd that the CBI can attract the top political and industry leaders, up to and including the prime minister, but seems unable to address the most basic elements of conference organisation.  Perhaps they should outsource the conference organising to India. 

I am just back from the CBI (Confederation of British Industry) conference, the first time I have been invited.  It certainly had plenty of high profile attendees, with CEOs of many of the UK’s largest companies.  Moreover the speaker list was hard to top, with in-person attendance from Gordon Brown, Bertie Ahern (Taoiseach of Ireland), US Treasury Secretary Henry Paulsen and a certain Tony Blair.  David Cameron was supposed to be there but elected to head off for a photo-op in Iraq at the last minute (a rather curious piece of timing that presumably is supposed to signal that the new Tories are not in the pockets of business, or some such political gesture).  Business speakers included luminaries such as Lakshmi Mittal (the richest man in Britain) and the European head of Google, Nikesh Arora, along with assorted top CEOs. 

A major theme was the rise of China and India as global economic powers, and what this meant for British Industry.  In 1820 China and India accounted for 40% of the world’s economic output, and at the present rate they will do again by 2025. In case you thought China was all about low-cost manufacturing, China Mobile was revealed by Martin Sorrel to be the world’s fourth most powerful brand in a new WPP survey, with a little matter of 268 million subscribers.   The sheer scale of China can be hard to take in, as I discovered when I went to Shanghai earlier this year.  There are 184 cities in China with population of over 1 million people, and according to one panelist the premier of China reckons that there may be 1.5 billion people now in China instead of the conventionally quoted figure of 1.3 billion.  The notion of 200 million people popping in as a form of rounding error speaks volumes to the scale of the place.

As well as the China and India theme there was discussion on energy security and the changes of ownership of companies through globalisation.  In Tony Blair’s session he emphasised how important education was, revealing that 7 million adults in Britain have a reading age below that of an average 11 year old child.  I would like to point out that,  that, perhaps not by coincidence, this is also the exact audience figure for the X Factor.  Blair’s session was primarily Q&A, which he handled with his characteristic aplomb and good humour.  He even remembered my name when I asked him a question - a smooth operator. 

The conference itself was held in the slightly odd setting of the British Design Centre in Islington, which as a venue leaves quite a bit to be desired.  I felt a couple of drops of rain come through the roof, and there seem to be two small toilets for the entire place, which are reached down a maze of ill-lit corridors that look like the sort of ones you walk down when exiting a dodgy cinema into a dark alley.  Security was understandably tight, but less forgiveable were the grand total of four staff issuing badges at reception, resulting in long queues, while a crowd of other staff at a vastly over-manned nearby desk for press stood around chatting to each other and generally being as useful as a chocolate teapot. 

The lunch appeared to be arranged by someone from a Soviet-era canteen.  There were half a dozen identical areas with food, but instead of guests just forming a short queue at each we were shepherded to the end of a long corridor and then formed a single very, very long queue for one section while the other sections remained empty “until the first one runs out of food” as it was carefully explained by a manageress who perhaps was an Aeroflot stewardess in a previous job. 

It does seem odd that the CBI can attract the top political and industry leaders, up to and including the prime minister, but seems unable to address the most basic elements of conference organisation.  Perhaps they should outsource the conference organising to India.