For many of you the past year has seen successes in driving change throughout your organisations with regard to better procurement, but now procurement professionals need to intensify their efforts.

The drive for greater efficiencies will be intensified even further by the global financial crisis. As we hear and see from commentators, this is having a major impact on the UK economy, leading to substantial financial commitments being made by the Government in a bid to ward off the worst effects of the recession. The public purse will therefore come under ever-increasing pressure to deliver the same (and in some cases more) services for less expenditure.

At the same time the way people view local public services is changing. Individuals and communities want more efficient and responsive local public services. They want innovative services that they help to define and which focus on their needs - in other words, services defined not around what providers do but around broad social, environmental and economic outcomes.

Achieving both of these objectives is the big challenge ahead. It is only by working more closely with our public sector, third sector and provider partners that these objectives can be met. This year’s Conference is aimed at identifying what that challenge means in practice and the ways in which we can work towards achieving our collective goals.

Speakers from the LGA/CBI and academia, together with practitioners who have already begun their journey, will share their perspectives and best practice with you, as will leading public sector figures who are pushing back the frontiers of change.

The Annual Conference and Exhibition represents an excellent opportunity to meet your peers in a relaxed atmosphere, and to catch up with those outside your normal sphere of contact and find out what they are doing that you could apply in your own organisation. It is also an opportunity to find out what the cutting-edge providers are offering in terms of improved products and services. It is these leading providers who sponsor and exhibit at the event, so do make every effort to attend.

Click here to book your place