Hi, yes I agree that's a good idea. Thanks for coming up with it. Yes I think it's worth spending some money

Just as an observation (and as a Congress veteran, I started out taking my roller banner and business cards to the Belfast Congress in 2003) while it's a real business networking opportunity, spending much time behind a stall is not a good use of time and energy, so suggest our stand is designed to be largely 'self service' and we use the time to go round other peoples' stands and ask questions about what they do and what they need, as a way to open doors/make useful contacts. VME co-op really works these events to do do business, to the extent of regularly sponsoring the retail consumer co-op conference which has already happened this year. In future years I suggest that conference might be a more fruitful ground. The problem imo with the big co-ops is that they feel safer outsourcing to big facilities management companies - they are pretty impervious to 'principle six' business pitching - although Calverts did do some brilliant one-off business with Co-op Group and Co-ops UK itself was a big client for five years or so.

Thanks @sionwhellens we will take on your advice and I agree that we should aim to have a CoTech stall at the co-op retail conference in 2026, this is something that Vica suggested to me last year.