Bretby 2009 – Back to Business

The eighth joint seminar for the ceramics industry to be held at the Bretby Conference Centre, Burton on Trent is organized by the Ceramics Society and the ICTa Education and Training Trust.

The Heavy Clays Industry is still experiencing extremely difficult trading conditions brought on by the worldwide credit crunch and slow down in the domestic housing market. Although, the economic forecast indicates that the economy will start to recover early in 2010, times are still tough. The theme this year will be “Back to Business“ and will concentrate on looking forward to a better future for the industry.

Mellor Memorial Lecture

This year‘s Mellor Memorial Lecture will be given by Dr. Denzil Spencer, former Technical Director, Ibstock Brick and the 2008 recipient of the Institute‘s Holland Award.

The title of Dr. Spencer‘s lecture will be “Technological Developments and the Markets for Heavy Clay Products“ and will highlight major influences including technological developments in the manufacture and markets for Heavy Clay Products – Bricks, Roof Tiles, Pipes and Refractories will be reviewed. Some of the lessons which have been learnt from the other clay sectors will be discussed to identify the threats and opportunities for product innovation for the Clay Brick Sector.

Continuous Improvement Workshops

This year, the workshop session will provide delegates with the opportunity to take part in some “hands-on“ problem solving. Working in small teams you will apply structured problem solving techniques to improve the operation of a process. You will appreciate the importance of collecting data to drive improvement and the benefits of teamwork in problem solving situations. You will be encouraged to develop solutions, test those solutions and then demonstrate the improvements you have achieved. The sessions will be facilitated by CIF and we can promise you fun whilst learning at the same time.