IAF &
ILAC communications committees working in Americas on key communications
content and tools
The most recent meeting of the IAF
Communication & Marketing Committee, the ILAC Marketing &
Communications Committee and the Joint meeting saw IAF and ILAC members work
with members from the IAF Regional Accreditation Group IAAC – the Inter American Accreditation Cooperation.
Meeting Chair UKAS’ Jon
Murthy explains the importance of the meeting and the location. ‘Over the past couple
of years, we have worked at moving the IAF and ILAC communications meetings to a
variety of locations. By engaging with different regions of the accreditation
community we achieve two key objectives. Firstly, we generate better input into
the communications work with different perspectives from different IAF members
in different geographies; secondly it enables the content IAF and ILAC generate
to be clearly understood and used by all IAF and ILAC members’.
The meeting hosted by
Argentinian accreditation body OAA addressed a number
of key issues. These included the development of new content for publicsectorassurance.org and business-benefits.org, the websites vital in showcasing the benefits of accreditation,
certification and standards. The group also looked at ideas for the 2019 World
Accreditation Day, following the 2018 World Accreditation Day theme of Accreditation – delivering a safer World for 9 June 2018
The 2017 announcement of the
development of the IAF database of accredited
management system certificates gave the communications group a new area of activity. This meant
examining the communications needed to support the database, delivering a vital
tool for certified organisations to demonstrate to a wider audience their
certification.
Jon concludes,
‘Communications plays an essential role in ensuring the value of accreditation
is understood as widely as possible. Working with colleagues from across the
full IAF membership - such as IAAC - will help further spread the message of
the benefits it delivers.’
Joint IAF Communications
& Marketing and ILAC Marketing & Communications Committees hosted by
Argentinian accreditation body OAA at the IAAC meetings
Spreading the messages of the benefits of accredited certification in
Argentina
Having IAF communications
meetings in different geographies outside the realm of the IAF/ILAC Joint Annual
and Mid-Term meetings presents fabulous opportunities to engage with key
stakeholders.
IAF Communications &
Marketing Committee (CMC) Deputy Chair and IAF Director representing
certification body associations Marcus Long explains, ‘The CMC group works hard
at producing great material and great channels for communicating this content.
Sites like publicsectorassurance.org and business-benefits.org hand the conformity assessment industry vital tools to help them in
their dialogue with potential users. Locating the meetings in a variety of
places enables us to actually get out there and spread the messages’.
Whilst in Argentina the CMC
Chair (Jon Murthy) and Vice Chair (Marcus) both took the opportunity to spread
these messages. Firstly, Marcus took the messages of how conformity assessment can
be used by the agriculture and food sector at Argentina’s biggest agricultural
trade show Expoagro. Presenting to a diverse audience and meeting with Minister
of AgricultureLuis Miguel Etchevehere helped explain how
various conformity assessment tools can be used to boost Argentinian exports.
Secondly, a number of the
banks in Argentina are interested in understanding how accredited certification
can help boost business and deliver better risk management of the banks’
investments. To support this, Marcus presented to the Banco de la
Nación Argentina. In both instances Marcus worked with Argentinian CB
association CACER who continue to push the
agenda with these vital stakeholders.
Finally, Jon and Marcus presented to the Quality Infrastructure
Council for the Americas (QICA), explaining the range of tools and content IAF has to
be able to tell exactly the kind of stories told at Expoagro and to Banco de la
Nación Argentina.
Marcus
summarised, ‘The IAF Communications and Marketing Committee produces great
material to tell the tale of conformity assessment. But, this only delivers
value if we get out there and engage with our stakeholders. Combining the
development of the material with spreading it to a wider audience in Argentina
demonstrates exactly the value of the CMC’s work.’
Argentinian
Minister of AgricultureLuis Miguel
Etchevehere (2nd left), IAF Director Marcus Long IAF Director (2nd
right) and CACER officials meet at Expoagro in San Nicolás, Argentina
IAF
Director Marcus Long and CACER President Luis Puga (middle) present at Banco de la Nación
Argentina in Buenos Aires
