Technical Visits
The Industrial Agents Society remains committed to providing opportunities for its members to undertake technical visits to places/sites that are of general interest to the industry and that might otherwise be difficult for the individual to gain access to.
Recent visits include an inspection of the John Lewis unit at Gazeley's Magna Park, Milton Keynes which allowed IAS Members to witness first hand a unit in the process of a bespoke occupiers fit out prior to operation. The unit will be used by John Lewis for internet fulfilment, and many of the picking and racking systems being used are some of the most advanced in the world.
Additional technical visits which have been arranged include the Wembley Stadium Tour attended by over 30 agents last February. With a capacity of 90,000 seats it is the second largest stadium in the world after Camp Nou, but is the largest in the world with every seat under cover and one rather peculiar fact - it has the most toilets than any other venue in the world. It is certainly a very impressive stadium and at a total cost of close to £800 million, it should be.
The tour started with some quality video commentary from Michael Owen and as our guide said, he should stick to playing football. We toured the stadium from the top tier down to pitch side and experienced the changing room, press room and walked through the tunnel and up the steps to touch, but not to lift under strict orders from our guide, the heavily guarded FA cup (probably a replica) I'm sure, but as the photo above shows, Roger Waddams didn’t think much of that instruction.
The tour finished under Sir Bobby Moore's statute but in true Shedhead style, it wasn’t really all over until some post match drinks were consumed back in the West End.
Another recent trip was to the Griffin Brewery at Chiswick, home of the famous Fullers Beers. Attended by over 30 truly dedicated Industrial Agents who after sampling the products in the brewery cellars came away with a better understanding of the production of the amber nectar that slips down their throats so well each year at the annual IAS Dinner.
Trips to be arranged during the course of 2008 should include a working port and hopefully some rather interesting warehousing close to Heathrow Airport. For further details on these and other trips to be arranged contact Ed Thomason or Nigel Harris.