Stronger Together – Weaker Apart
Over 100 people from across the UK Christian media industry, some from as far away as Scotland, Carlisle, Cardiff and Exeter, braved difficult weather conditions to gather at St Paul’s Church in London on 12th January for the newly formed Christian Resources Together Consultation Day. There were 41 retailers and 49 supplier representatives present along with authors, media, and other organisations.
They gathered to hear about the plans for a new Retailers and Suppliers Retreat, to be held at High Leigh Conference Centre, and also the Retailers Day (as part of CRE) at Sandown Park. Full details of both events can be found on page 20 of this magazine.
Stronger Together – Weaker Apart is the title of the new retreat event, which will take place at High Leigh from 4th-5th May 2010, which has been put together by a steering group comprising representatives of Christian Resources Exhibitions (CRE), the Christian Booksellers group of the Booksellers Association (BA CBG), the Christian Suppliers Group (CSG) and Christian Marketplace magazine.
Colin Saunders, Executive Chairman of CRE, welcomed the assembled crowd by reflecting on how important the fellowship aspect of the early CBC days at Norbreck Castle in Blackpool was for him personally, and how the proposals being presented picked up on that important aspect. He also paid tribute to Andy Bodkin and CCLI who have agreed to support the High Leigh event for three years. “We are very thankful to them for coming alongside,” said Saunders.
Steve Briars from CRE gave the background to the journey so far, explaining that the idea for a retreat type event had developed as a result of feedback and consultation across the industry following the CBC at CRE event in 2009 and the Christian Media Conference 2009, organised by IBS-STL.
During 2009 Mark Clifford (BA CBG) and Ian Metcalfe (CSG) had met along with their respective committees to discuss how they might better work together and how a Christian Media event might be more widely extended. Briars had also been in discussion with Steve Mitchell from IBS-STL about possibly incorporating some of the aspects of Christian Media into CBC.
When it became apparent that IBS-STL might not be in a position to proceed with their planned event in 2010, Briars and Saunders called a meeting of these key industry representatives at the beginning of November and the seeds of the new retreat event were sown.
James Catford, Chief Executive of Bible Society (owners of CRE Ltd) gave the keynote address and said that in the face of current difficulties which the Christian media industry is facing, the need for everyone to work together is even more imperative. Taking 2 Corinthians 4:7 as his text he emphasised that we need to remember that our businesses, whether shops, warehouses etc. and our products, are just the pots and not the treasure. “We have become in danger of worshipping the pot and not the treasure,” he said and pointed out that “the current shifts in the industry, post the break up of IBSSTL UK, are a correction to the industry which was probably needed.”
He went on to emphasis the importance of strong relationships in the coming times. “We are in a complex industry and times are challenging,” he said. “If our relationships are not strong we are not able to handle big challenges and the sort of complexity we are currently facing.” He said that he believed the High Leigh event would help in the area of relationship building and commended the event and the work done to get this far.
“There is a future for this industry and for Bible Society to achieve our objectives this industry has to succeed,” said Catford. “But the future is going to be out in the public square – start imagining a future out there.”
After the presentation by Briars, the assembly broke into small groups to discuss a couple of questions relating to the training proposals and ideas for future events.
One of the points raised was the need to include authors (and artists) in discussions about the future of the industry. As one speaker put it, “we need to be better as an industry at finding and developing talent.”
The general view of people who spoke to Christian Marketplace about what they had heard was very positive and the phrase ‘this is just what we need’ was repeated by a number of people.
Steve Briars told Christian Marketplace, “I am encouraged by the numbers who attended and the distance travelled in such difficult weather conditions. There is undoubtedly a real desire to hear more about Christian Resources Together at a time when the trade needs a reenvisioning and support. The feedback from the meeting has only been positive and I sense from both suppliers and retailers there is a real desire to make the planned events a real success.”
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