The Council for Aluminium in Building (CAB) will hold its 31^st Annual General Meeting at Stratford’s Crowne Plaza on the 23 October.

The headline speaker will be Noble Francis, economics director at the Construction Products Association (CPA), who will provide an update on the economic outlook for the construction sector.

Having set the economic backdrop, he’ll be followed by Claire Fenton, principal facades manager at Wates Construction, who will share lessons from the supply chain audit process and competency assessments.

Nigel Headford, chief executive, CAB, who will also provide an update on the work of the trade association, said that compliance and competency were key themes for the construction sector going forward.

He said: “Competency runs through every part of our industry. It’s not just CAD teams or technical managers, main contractors are now auditing systems companies, hardware providers and fabricators to understand how staff are trained and how competence is evidenced.

“We want members to leave the AGM with a clear blueprint of what auditors will ask for, how to present it, and where CAB can help.

“Our aim is to make proving competence simpler, faster and more credible so projects keep moving and businesses get paid.”

He added that the AGM will also be a platform to showcase CAB’s wider initiatives, from training recognition with the Joint Competency Initiative (JCI) to an update on its U-value Charter and technical committee restructure.

Nigel continued: “We’re pushing hard with Government and the JCI so member training can count as official CPD and evidence of competence.

“That recognition will supercharge uptake of the courses our members already run turning existing effort into acknowledged proof.

“Alongside that, we’ll brief members on the refreshed U-value Charter, which reflects the move from notional to specific window performance.

“Aluminium has always sold on measured thermal performance, so we’re making it easy for our sector to show compliance cleanly and consistently.”

The AGM will be followed by a black-tie dinner and awards, closing with the celebrated after dinner speaker and former prison governor, Robbie Glen.

As one of CAB’s flagship occasions, it is expected to be highly popular, and members are encouraged to secure dinner places and bedrooms early.

For more information about the benefits of CAB membership visit www.c-a-b.org.uk.