Last month Associated Vending Services (AVS) members met at the Hyatt Regency Hotel in Birmingham where they were treated to valuable advice from internet giant Google before joining in a lively debate on the hot topic of cup recycling.
A total of 54 delegates attended the quarterly meeting, on this occasion organised to engage younger up and coming senior members in AVS companies and encourage them to join in the discussion on key industry issues.
Among the highlights of the meeting was a mini course presented by Simone Robinson of Google on how to build a digital marketing plan – a session that was particularly well received by members.
AVS chief executive Louise Cummings said: “This was a wonderful presentation for some of our younger managers coming through. Google has the latest information in the market and for them this was an exceptional training aid.”
She added that members had found Google’s tips so useful that several had already implemented some key pointers into their own business plans.
Other highlights from the meeting included a presentation from the new Automatic Vending Association (AVA) chief executive David Llewellyn, on the future of the AVA.
This was followed, in the afternoon, by a debate on the thorny issue of recycling and the role vending operators have to play. Joining the debate was Nigel Cannon of RPC, Adrian Pratt of Benders and Peter Goodwin of Simply Cups.
The AVS is a cooperative group which regularly shares information with its members through various committees on topics including data regulation, marketing techniques, onscreen advertising techniques, social media, recycling, coin collection, snacks that have the best run rate, or sugar free drinks that perform best in different environments.
Louise says: “The AVS committees are key to the success of the group. Each committee covers a set area of purchasing or operations and uses their specialist knowledge to whittle down products and offerings, which are never ending, to advise the membership.
“It’s the equivalent of a project manager’s role and it helps members in the sense that they don’t have to spend as much time researching certain topics as AVS has them covered.”
