I recently had the pleasure of hosting the inaugural FCSA Forum, which took place on Tuesday the 11th of July in Manchester. It was a great day, with just shy of 200 attendees as well as our sponsors: My Digital, Brabners, JMW Solicitors, JA, FreeAgent, Credas, MitiGo, TrustID, Caunce O’Hara, Remus Rewards, Qdos and Marsh Commercial attending. It was a great experience to network with our members and attendees and have productive conversations about our sector.
I’ve always been passionate about our industry, and this sector in particular, having been a contractor for many years myself. The hard work of contractors and freelancers should not go unnoticed, and as an organization, I am proud of the diligent work put in by both the FCSA team and our members to elevate industry standards and encourage best practices. Additionally, as we are committed to advocating for the industry as a whole, I was delighted to see so many people sharing our passion.
We saw insightful speeches from My Digital, Mitigo, Brabners, Credas, Freeagent, Carl Reader, JWM Solicitors, JA, FCSA’s Chair James Burrows and Tim Harrison on behalf of the Director of Labour Market Enforcement (DLME). We also hosted roundtable discussions and had discussions on FCSA memberships, and regulation & education in the future, and avoiding tax avoidance.
The feedback received from attendees was overwhelmingly positive, so I would like to thank the wonderful team here at FCSA that helped sculpt such a brilliant event. I would also like to thank everyone who attended the FCSA Forum 2023. It was a great success, and I am already looking forward to next year’s event.
My key takeaways
- Our sector is a dynamically changing and rapidly growing sector of the economy and shows no sign of slowing down.
- There are several challenges facing our sector, such as cybercrime, tax and regulation.
- FCSA continue to be trusted and committed to advocating for our members and helping navigate our sector through the future.
- FCSA is committed to supporting independent professionals and helping them to succeed.
- We have a strong community of passionate members, helping shape the landscape for contractors into the future.
Catch-up on what’s been missed
If you missed the forum, you can catch up over the next few weeks as the team here will be releasing a series of summaries.
The full agenda and some recordings of the keynote speakers will become available on the FCSA website imminently. The marketing team have told me to mention that you can also follow the #FCSAForum hashtag on Twitter and LinkedIn to see what people were saying about the event.
Upcoming and future events from FCSA
We have several smaller networking events coming up for our accredited members, all of which I’ll be attending myself. Additionally, we have many webinars from industry experts coming up soon.
Looking forward to seeing you at FCSA Forum 2024!
Chris Bryce, CEO of FCSA
