I hope those of you that have had the chance to grab some ‘down time’ over the Easter holidays have done just that and have managed to have a restful week this past week. Likely, many of us are now just about ready for schools to be back and ready to charge into the spring/summer months with renewed vigour.
Our week started on a particularly high note when we received an email congratulating Products of Change on its win in the UK Enterprise Awards this year. It turns out we’ve been named the Best Online Consumer Goods Education Platform 2023.
It’s a fantastic win for us and a wonderful recognition of every collaborative effort that goes into the Products of Change platform. So, a massive, massive thank you to every member of the Products of Change community for making it – and this industry – what it is. Special thanks to whoever nominated us for the award too because there were certainly some blank stares when the question was asked earlier this week!
Ours wasn’t the only win for the industry this week, of course, as we’ve also received the results of Funko EMEA’s annual charity fundraiser, which this year took the form of a two-day sample sale held at its Hammersmith showroom.
Funko employees were invited to spend their hard-earned cash on the sample sales set up to raise money for The Light Fund – and raise some money, they did! The sales collectively raised £15,000 for the industry charity, with Funko EMEA matching this amount to bring the total donation to £30,000.
A separate sample sale carried out at Funko distribution centre in Coventry also contributed to the final donation.
What a wonderful showcase of not only the power we have in this industry to begin making a difference, but the value in items and products that could so easily be otherwise written off. And that’s a value that can now on to have a transformative impact on the lives of people elsewhere. Congratulations to Funko EMEA on the wonderful example being set.
Impact is finding itself at the forefront of industry discussion across the board. In our chat with the Sustainability in Licensing Conference 2023 sponsor and licensed bedding specialist Dreamtex this week, we learn just how high up the agenda implementing sustainability action within the business and in the products the team produces has risen. It’s a fantastically inspiring read and we are immensely proud to count Dreamtex – and the many other POC members like them – as one among our community and industry.
With such a high calibre roster of sponsors and a speaker and panel session line-up now taking shape, we cannot wait for SiLC 23 to make its return to the Royal Geographical Society in London on 8th November this year. You can find the information you need on booking tickets right here.
We still have a few months separating us from SiLC 23 yet and a fair few events to tick off the calendar first. Not least of which is a very exciting Virtual Sustainability Summit, produced in a partnership between Products of Change and the Women in Food Industry Management (WFIM) organisation from across North America and Canada. Taking place on Friday, 28th April at 9.00am EST (1.00pm GMT), the Summit will bring pioneering innovators and industry leaders together under one roof to explore the most pressing topics impacting the global food and consumer product industries right now.
It’s a jam-packed agenda that will deliver some of the biggest names in the North American and Canadian food industry, including McCain, McDonald’s, and Unilever, as well as some of our very finest from the Products of Change ensemble, including Gary Pope, James George, Mike Swain, and many others.
Tickets are priced at $30 Canadian (around £17) for anyone who purchases using the code asmp23. Learn more about the event here.
A big shout out goes to Brenda Seto, Products of Change’s Ambassador for North America and Canada who has curated a wonderful day-long agenda of panel sessions and speakers. We can’t wait to kick it all off on Friday 28th and celebrate Earth Day and its extended month of activities with WFIM.
Yes, with Earth Day landing on Saturday, 22nd April this year, many have taken the decision to extend the celebrations across the month of April. Here at Products of Change, Earth Week will comprise a busy schedule of online meetings, including our first closed meeting for licensors to discuss Scope 3 emissions and how to measure and reduce them. Taking place on Wednesday, 19th April this meeting is invite only, so please do get in touch if you’re keen to join.
Tuesday, 25th April will bring with an exclusive chat with Kids Industries’ Gary Pope as he talks us through the latest piece of major research into children and their relationship with sustainability. You can find more information in how to join this discussion right here.
Products of Change’s Ambassador for Fashion, Julia Redman will host an online session on Wednesday, 26thApril when she will be joined by a special guest, Zak Johnson, founder at Reborn and Naeco to showcase the latest innovations in the sector. Learn more about it here.
Celebrations don’t end there! Continuing Earth Day’s theme of ‘Invest in our Planet’ this year, Products of Change will also be participating in some major Earth Day licensor activities over in the US, including taking a guest spot on a panel session at Mattel’s own Earth Week celebrations. Earth Day and Earth Week presents a great opportunity to unite businesses and individuals around the one topic we all have in common; our home – and it’s a place well worth investing in.
We’d love to hear what activities you might have planned for celebrating Earth Day and Earth Week this year, so get in touch and share your stories with our editor Rob today.
For now, have a wonderful weekend and prepare to switch those out of offices off again next week.
