Friday Brief Intro 09/12/22
Good afternoon and welcome to this week’s Friday Brief! Any Festive plans this weekend? It’s been a busy week so why not enjoy a mulled wine and a wonderful Christmas Market.
First up today we would like to thank everyone who attended the MTA’s AGM yesterday. We hope you all enjoyed the networking lunch and presentations from Neil Trivedi and Lieutenant General Richard Nugee.
I am delighted to informed you that the MTA Annual Dinner 2023 returns to London as a black-tie event. The evening will be hosted by comedian Ian Moore and, fresh from his time in the jungle, there will be after dinner entertainment from Seann Walsh. To book your tickets and check out more details in the story below.
Our Associate Member Mitigo has released a new article on how technology is attacked, why today’s cyber solutions might not provide protection tomorrow, and how to keep one step ahead of the bad guys. Take a look at the full article in their story below.
We supported the Future of Manufacturing campaign that launched on December 9th within the Guardian. Find out what’s been going on in the story below and in the article online through the link in their story.
In October 2022, 134 organisations reported cybercrimes to Action Fraud. Organisations with less than a £1.5 million turnover continue to be the most targeted by threat actors, accounting for 54% of reporting, with 58 of the reports coming from ‘Micro’ businesses (Sole Traders, and businesses with 1-9 employees). NCSC have more information that could help if your business has had a cyber-attack. Make sure to check out the details in their story.
Jack Semple, Secretary of EAMA, has compiled an update on some employment issues and is also looking for feedback from members on the issue of skills shortages and, in particular whether changes are needed to the Shortage Occupation List to meet specific skills shortages in the manufacturing sector by allowing people from overseas to access visas to work in the UK. If this is an issue for you, please take a look at the article and let us have your feedback so we can pass this on through our contacts at BEIS.
This week a couple of new BSI standards are awaiting your comments. Please have a read of the scopes and purposes in the story below.
Associate member Citation has released a handy free business continuity plan checklist to help you get prepared for any unexpected emergencies that may come your businesses way. Go to the story to download it today and find out more.
It is a quiet week for economic news with the main item being the latest GDP data for the EU covering the 3rd quarter. Eurostat has edged up its estimate of growth compared to the previous release of this data. Only one European country is in recession with Estonia having had a negative in both Q2 and Q3 but a number of others are at risk of joining them if they have a downturn in the 4th quarter. We also have some summary data from the recent CECIMO meeting (which we covered last week) with details of how to get the more detailed files if you need them.
Our colleagues at the European Cutting Tool Association (ECTA) have announced details of their conference which is being held in San Sebastian next May (25th to 27th). This is relevant to companies in the cutting tool and clamping parts of the manufacturing technology spectrum so if this includes you, please take a look at the article which contains the links to the conference details.
Finally, a reminder that the November edition of the MTA Business Survey is underway; you can access the questionnaire at www.mta.org.uk/mta-business-survey-nov22 and, with thanks to those who have responded already, we hope you can spare a couple of minutes to let us have your input to this – we would love to hear from you.
That concludes our Friday Brief for this week! Have a great weekend and we’ll ‘see’ you all again next week for some more great stories!
ECONOMIC NEWS
European GDP, 3rd Quarter 2022: In its latest release of GDP data, Eurostat has upgraded its estimate of growth in the 3rd quarter to +0.4% for the EU and +0.3% for the Euro-zone – both were previously estimated to have grown by +0.2% compared to the previous quarter. This also means that the growth rate […]
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