The main highlight of last year for me was LIFTEX 2016. LEIA’s aims were to provide a showcase for the UK industry and an exhibition to attract and inform a larger number of visitors. Our objective to increase participation was demonstrated by attracting 48 new companies to the exhibition, from around the world as well as the UK, and a 15% increase in visitor numbers. They were happy too – 80% saying that their objectives were met and 97% planning to attend the next LIFTEX in 2019. Even more importantly, the event had a significant economic value. Our research revealed that 57% of Platforms sector about setting up a specific training module. (See page 11.) We will also make some adjustments to the marketing campaign, cutting back on traditional advertising spend and focusing on PR and social media which proved themselves at LIFTEX 2016. The pros and cons of social media are complex and indeed LEIA has been active for some time now in relation to the dangerous activities of one individual who is misusing the Internet. But like a number of LEIA members, we see the benefits of responsible use of social media platforms for sharing information (as analysing building trends and recognising lift users and scheduling lifts accordingly. Connection of camera and other sensors which we now take for granted on our mobile devices will allow more sophisticated monitoring of aspects which are not possible to be done on site (the engineer is constrained to be only able to operate equipment on inspection control). Many checks could be automated and an early warning of failure raised for action to be taken. With the economic pressure from owners to reduce maintenance times, the time available on site could be prioritised toward tasks which do need human intervention. Standards and regulations will continue to be featured more heavily, especially with the changes coming to many product standards and with the focus on the implications of Brexit. These and other issues have been communicated in various ways such as the videos of seminars at LIFTEX 2016 and in LEIA newsletters. Among other issues, we have addressed the impact of new BEIS guidance on pit depth and headroom, implication for standards and regulations from Brexit and a recent piece on lift standards in the modern built environment. And of course we share all of these through our LinkedIn page so please follow us there or connect to Nick Mellor if you would like to receive updates. Looking forward on a more personal level, I am delighted to be chosen to take over as Managing Director when Terry Potter retires this summer. He will be a hard act to follow, after all he has done to expand and professionalise the training and standards activities of the Association, not to mention his commitment to developing good communication throughout the LEIA membership. As Technical Director of LEIA for a little over five years, I bring a different set of skills together with experience of the industry and the Association which will enable me both to continue building on the strong base built by Terry and to identify some new directions to follow. participants were planning to purchase lifts or related products in the coming year and 15% of them indicated that their spend would be in excess of £1m. In other words, £400m of spending power walked through the event over two days. We also gathered feedback to build on the successes. As a result, we will review the seminar programme for LIFTEX 2019 for topics of most appeal while keeping the sessions tightly focused. Most importantly, we want to continue to increase the number of exhibitors – with more of them being LEIA members. It is a great opportunity for marketing, business development and also finding out what LEIA can do to improve member services – as evidenced by our Safety and Training Manager Lawrence Dooley, who was able to talk to key players in the Lifting LEIA ANNUAL REVIEW 2017 Looking back and looking ahead Nick Mellor, LEIA Technical Director Left to right, Ian Jones of Otis Elevators, Rudi Klein of SEC Group and LEIA T echnical Director Nick Mellor. È we do increasingly widely using LinkedIn) and reaching out to existing and new markets. Looking forward, it is fitting that in this issue we gather views on the impact of social media on businesses as this is just one element of changes which some see as being as profound as the industrial revolution. (See page 6.) In the past, most lifts had very little ‘connectivity’ – there has been a telephone line for an alarm communication system but apart from higher end projects there has been relatively little use of remote monitoring. This is changing and while the Internet of Things has been over-hyped, we will increasingly see equipment connected so that it can be monitored remotely. So lifts can get smarter, for example