Posts in category: News

Do you know any young people (aged 16-25) who may be interested in taking part in our Love Your Local Market video competition. Could you help us spread the word by putting up a poster in your market, talking to local schools/colleges/universities or promoting it via social media?

The purpose of the competition is to connect with young people & to get them to highlight what markets mean to them in terms of the competition themes of: Culture, Heritage, Entrepreneurship, Sustainability and Makers, Creators and Collectives.

We will capture all the videos on our LYLM Youtube channel & the winning video will receive a prize of £500. Entries need to be received between 17th May & 17th June 2017. For more details about the competition see: bit.ly/LYLM2017videocomp 

We will be celebrating the European launch of LYLM 2017 in Madrid on the 4th May with many European countries present to celebrate their involvement in this great campaign. Have you registered your markets yet for #LYLM2017? Go to the Love Your Local Market website for all details about the campaign. This includes registration, merchandising, video competition & lots more.

There seems to be an increasing number of markets being put out to tender. NABMA is interested to know from any members who have tendered out their market. What success have you had? Are you happy with the results? We are wanting to build up a picture of what works and what lessons can be learnt. Please get in touch via nabma@nabma.com if you are happy to share your experiences.

Don’t forget that the NABMA regional meetings start tomorrow (Thursday 23rd March) in Bolton. We recommend all members to attend these meetings if they can as we’ll not only be spending the morning learning about the latest markets news but also sharing best practice. There’ll also be a chance to network with markets colleagues. For information about the location & dates of all the regional meetings click here

Coventry Market featured on Harry Hill’s new TV Programme, Alien Fun Capsule this week. Guests, Joe Lycett, Kathy Burke, Lorraine Kelly & Ainsley Harriott all joined Harry Hill in singing the Coventry Market song. It got a lot of people talking about Coventry Market on social media & in the press & looked like a lot of fun. See the clip on Coventry Telegraph’s website here

Bolton held another successful Teenage Market on Saturday 4th March. The market was a great success and around 20 independent entrepreneurs sold items ranging from cakes, chocolates to jewellery and crafts.

Bolton Lads and Girls Club, YMCA Bolton, Bolton Youth Council and Castle Hill Youth Centre were all trading at the event.
Plus there was a stage for showcasing live music from young bands and singers, with Bolton FM compering. Visitors also got the chance to have a go at a range of sports including football, boxing, martial arts and basketball.

Leader of Bolton Council, Cllr Cliff Morris, said: ” We had a great turnout for the market, a good mix of stalls, fantastic live music and many of the traders sold out early. I am delighted that we are giving young people a free platform to showcase their business talents and creative skills.”

The next market is on May 13 and young people can register now for it.

Following a meeting with the Peter Jones Foundation, NABMA and NMTF will be seeking to identify around ten markets in 2017 who are willing to work with Colleges with a view to getting markets as part of the curriculum in 2018. The Peter Jones Foundation believes that our proposals give students, business and entrepreneurial experience and they are willing to support our project. Get in touch if you are interested.

Have you booked to attend one of the regional meetings yet? The first one takes place in Bolton on 23rd March. Then Ely on 30th March, Barnsley – 5th April, London – 26th April & the final one in Bridport on 24th May.

The regional meetings will cover the 5 priorities below for taking the “Professionalising Markets” agenda forward, the Love Your Local Market campaign, networking & will give you the opportunity to share best practice. If you would like to see details of each regional meeting & to book click here

Professionalising Markets – 5 priorities:

1 NATIONAL BENCHMARKING PROJECT
A formal start is being made with a meeting of a number of markets at the APSE offices in Manchester. NABMA wants this project to be of benefit to the whole markets industry so regular updates will be provided.

2 PITCH UP FOR RETAIL
It is clear many of our members have already forged links with local schools, colleges and universities. NABMA wants to see these links taken further with a formal training qualification which embraces market trading. We will be looking over the next few months to see if we can link up with at least ten colleges.

3 MANAGEMENT MODELS
The survey undertaken by Colin Wolstenholme for NABMA showed that there is still much work to do in this area. To build on the survey results NABMA wants to undertake a good practice study in the coming months to look at up to fifteen markets where attempts have been made to introduce new management models in the last five years. The study will give details of what has happened and provide lessons for others.

4 PERFORMANCE TEMPLATE
We have several examples of how the Performance Template has been used. You can access these examples through the NABMA website at www.nabma.com in the publications section of the menu. Over the next few months NABMA will be seeing how we can make it easier for our members to utilise the Performance Template.

5 MARKET ACCREDITATION
Along the lines of the Purple Flag and Real Deal accreditation NABMA will be looking at how we can give markets a formal accreditation that will enhance their status.