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Describe your role at the South West Procurement Alliance:

I joined the South West Procurement Alliance (SWPA), the South West regional hub of the LHC Procurement Group as Marketing and Communications Officer in June 2023. As marketing and communications officer my role is busy, varied and motivating, supporting a team of seven with a diverse range of marketing support. This varies vastly from the production of literature, acquisition of merchandise and Point of Sale items, to organising partnerships, sponsorships, campaigns and collaborations. Alongside this is the organisation of events, from the SWPA conferences, meetings, and webinars we host, to exhibiting and attending at industry-leading events in the South West. All of these marketing pursuits provide me with a great opportunity to meet Clients and Appointed Companies, often collaborating on campaigns and content.

The production of content, which I hugely enjoy, is another large part of my role. This covers everything from a fast paced, current and reactive social media calendar, primarily based on LinkedIn, to blog posts, case studies, news items and reports. This production of content allows me to research the frameworks thoroughly, along with garnering close relationships with clients and suppliers, as I support them with promoting their services, solutions, and projects, achieved by SWPA’s procurement routes, added value services and frameworks. Often this production of content also allows me the time and space to research areas I am only now becoming familiar with, such as procurement, net zero goals, sustainability aspects and our Social Value Strategy.

My favourite aspect of this marketing role is the promotion and organisation of the Community Benefit Fund, which is part of the job that is the most important to me personally. The grants awarded through the Community Benefit Fund are awarded to small community groups and charities in the South West region, where we can witness first hand the difference these make to people’s lives.

Why did you choose the South West Procurement Alliance?

I chose to work at the South West Procurement Alliance because of their ethics and pledge to give back to the community. I am hugely grateful to be able to market an organisation that operates ethically and with great integrity, often promoting the great work our Community Benefit grants achieve.

Being able to advertise and promote genuine examples of community benefit, housing and refurbishment projects, which I can tangibly appreciate and see positively impacting the communities around us in real time, makes my role in marketing all the more enjoyable and worthwhile.

What does the future hold for your role at the South West Procurement Alliance? 

The future for SWPA is incredibly bright and looks to even more growth and improvement. I am hoping in years to come the team will continue to grow, along with our client and supplier base, and further to this our opportunity to promote and market the incredible net zero and community initiatives we continue champion. This is furthered by our brand new Retrofit and Decarbonisation (N9) Framework.

Additionally, I believe SWPA will become more sustainable in our pursuit of net zero, and award even larger grants to the community, operating on an even wider scale around the South West. Through SWPA, the team are able to pursue training programmes on an annual basis and through these I hope to one day become a CIM accredited marketeer. With the help of these training courses I hope to improve my skill set and better myself in many different marketing techniques and strategies, in order to further support the team, our clients and suppliers.

I look forward to promoting this great work and impressive growth, and hope to attend even more industry events. For SWPA to become a thought leader on current industry relevant topics through our various digital platforms is one of my goals. The future is looking very bright for SWPA as we continue to move onwards and upwards!