Of friendships, fun and fundraising

If more of us valued food and cheer and song above hoarded gold, it would be a merrier world.

Excuse my French, but I bloody love this industry. There’s just something about what goes on here, about the people, the products, the processes that seems to float my proverbial boat. Maybe all industries are like this. Maybe I would feel the same were I to write for Plastics and Rubber Weekly (it’s a real title – I promise), or The Musical Instruments’ Chronicle (not sure that one is) I’d feel the same about flute-makers or people who sell rubber and plastic do-dahs. But I don’t think so.

I was discussing this on the final night of the 2026 NMBS Conference and we agreed that, while lots of industries might say they are people industries, this one really is. It absolutely does have something different about it. The more cynical amongst you might think I only say that because said conversation, fuelled by Estrella Galicia and Spanish white, took place under the trees at a gorgeous Costa Brava vineyard, and with someone who is a personal friend, but they’d be wrong.

It’s the conversations that matter, the conversations that take place between like-minded people who become firm friends, and they can, and do happen anywhere.

That said, sometimes you do need to step out of the day-to-day, to experience something different, to spark some of those conversations. Yes, there is the option of attending webinars, or Teams meetings about how to use Artificial Intelligence in the business, or learn about the importance of empowering employees to think outside the box, but once those online sessions are over, it’s back to the day job. You don’t get that post-session chatter. Formalised feedback sessions or Survey Monkey follow-ups just aren’t the same.

How many business decisions started life out as a germ of an idea, generated by a conversation in the coffee queue or over lunch, or even in the corridor on the way to the loo after a business session away from the daily grind? How many business relationships have either begun, or been strengthened by conversations around, and reminisces of, interesting, thought-provoking – and sometimes the opposite – conference presentations or hilarious dinearound antics ? Loads, I can tell you.

Conversations matter, they connect us, they ground us, they help us to focus. They help throwaway remarks to take root and grow.

This sector is also phenomenally generous when it matters. The Maddie Rose Foundation gained a huge boost over the Conference weekend because a few people had a conversation about hats: spot one of four people without their ridiculously coloured hats, and they have to donate some money to the charity. Spot them with their hats on, and donate anyway. They could, and did, keep their hats on, you might say. And people donated big time, for which I thank them wholeheartedly.

Our June issue, out this week, documents the launch of the Maddie Rose Foundation, the next chapter in the story. Last month’s Maddie Rose Golf Day, the fifth so far, began life as a conversation between some guys at the Polypipe factory who wanted to help someone they respected. Together, they decided to do something to raise money in memory of Maddie. In so doing they showed that light can peek through the darkest, most all-encompassing clouds if you know where and how to look.

We need to talk. It’s good to talk. Whether that’s about our businesses and how we can best get through the current mire, or about what’s going on with us personally, and how others could help us see a way through the fog. Talk, communication, opening up all matters. Because, as the last few weeks have shown, when we do that, when this industry does that, and we come together, good things happen.