UK team attend the annual conference of the ‘National Association of British Market Traders’

Awards ceremony at the NABMA conference

On 11-12 October 2021, Sophie Watson and Gunvor Jónsson attended the annual conference of the ‘National Association of British Market Authorities’ (NABMA) in Stratford Upon Avon – a small English town that was famously the birthplace of William Shakespeare. The delegates were primarily marketplace managers and council representatives from across the UK, and the conference programme covered a range of both urgent and long-term issues facing British marketplaces today. This included reflections on how British markets had fared during the pandemic and how they are recovering in the aftermath of lock down; the role of marketplaces in supporting the recovery of British high streets; different visions of the future of British marketplaces and their role within cities and in relation to local communities; and the relationship between the market industry and government. Several case studies of the wide variety of markets that exist in different areas of the country were presented by market managers - ranging from the famous and glamorous Borough Market in London to the hard-hit Bolton market in the North of England, which was an epicentre for the rapidly spreading Covid-19 “Delta variant” in the UK.

Sophie Watson giving talk at NABMA

Sophie Watson gave a talk introducing the Moving Market Places project, including its objectives and methods. She presented some of the research findings, focusing specifically on the skills of traders which have been largely overlooked or denigrated by the wider policy discourse on skilled and unskilled labour in the UK. The talk was well received by the audience. NABMA, as well as the National Market Traders Federation (NMTF), have made concerted efforts to develop training programmes and guidance for young and novice market traders, enhancing their trading skills. The talk provided academic insights and data supporting these efforts. See Sophie's presentation slides.