Have you been to a really great business function? What made it so great? Was it innovative speakers? Information that directly helped you in your role? Was it challenging? Inspirational? Motivational? Was it the friendly atmosphere? Amazing catering?

Probably you have also experienced memorable events for the wrong reasons – boring, irrelevant, impersonal…

At Accord, we know that everyone is too busy to waste time on events that don’t add value. That’s why we have a diverse offering of events and training—in person and online—that cater to the broad range of businesses we represent. We have offerings for leadership, management, regulatory and sustainability professionals to build knowledge, extend capacity and grow networks.

  • Our Industry Briefings, Conferences and Insight Hours cover a range of current and emerging issues, providing valuable insights, building awareness of big-picture industry issues and facilitating relationships with external stakeholders and organisations.
  • Regulatory training helps equip regulatory personnel to ensure that their member business is compliant and prepared for any upcoming changes.
  • Whether at Industry Dinners, Roundtables, or informally in the breaks and sidelines of other events, networking is invaluable for developing professional connections (and friendships), sharing knowledge and potentially sparking new ideas.

Accord has already hosted a few events this year.

We ran our ever-popular Australian Regulatory Basics Training in February. This one-day course provided an introductory overview of the regulatory system that affects the Australian beauty and personal care sector. And it’s complex! This full day of free member training attracted 90 Accord Member company registrants.

Our Cosmetic CEO Roundtable in February brought together industry leaders to discuss priority issues, especially in relation to packaging sustainability. Accord is always looking for opportunities to magnify positive environmental and social impacts through industry-led initiatives; our highly successful BeadRecede campaign to remove microbeads from rinse-off products is one stand-out example of this, and the wonderful Look Good Feel Better has been the beauty industry’s flagship charity program for many years.

In March our Industry Leaders’ Dinner at Melbourne’s trendy Bar Lourinhã was an opportunity to network and enjoy the company of industry colleagues.

And as we write, we are looking forward to our mid-year AGM Seminar in May. This—given the major sustainability regulations coming up—has a sustainability flavour. Linda Romanovska, Partner at RSM, on the scope of the upcoming climate reporting requirements, who will be affected (not just reporting entities!) and what businesses can be prioritising now. Chris Foley, Australian Packaging Covenant Organisation CEO, on packaging challenges facing both regulators and industry in Australia. Shannon Coombs from our sister organisation, with a sustainability update from the Canadian industry’s perspective, including on post-consumer waste recovery initiatives. And for all the CEOs/CFOs in the room, Paul Bloxham, Chief Economist at HSBC, with a post-budget economic update and financial year outlook.

In August we will hold our annual Canberra Day event. This will showcase our industry to government colleagues and we will hear about policy and regulatory developments that impact all businesses direct from government policy officials. To build on the priorities expanded by our industry leaders’ panel last year, we will host a ‘You can’t ask that’ Q&A for our government colleagues on the things they’ve always wanted to know about working within industry.  

And throughout the year we will continue to host online Insight Hours on key topics of interest and relevance as these arise. Most recently the ACCC spoke about their product safety supplier recall guideline. Other popular topics have included market and economic trends, forthcoming policy and regulatory developments, as well as case studies and other advances in sustainability.

We aim for all our events to be impactful and helpful to our Member businesses and their internal teams…and memorable for all the right reasons!

Is your business a Member of Accord? We look forward to seeing you at an event soon.

Accord Australasia is the peak body representing companies operating in the cosmetic, fragrance, personal care and toiletries sector – from multinationals to small Australian-owned businesses, importers to local manufacturers. www.accord.asn.au

This article was first published in the Winter issue of Retail Beauty:

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