On 20 and 21 June in Edinburgh, the British Standards Institution (BSI) is hosting the Annual Meetings of the European standards organisations CEN and CENELEC, bringing together senior representatives from all 34 European national standards bodies, as well as other leading international figures from the community, including the International Standards Organisations – ISO and IEC. This is the first time that the UK has hosted this event since 2002.

These formal meetings are then going to be followed on Thursday 22 June by an Open Day called ‘Standards Matter’, intended to be a day of exhibitions, talks and debates on the future of standardisation and the importance of standards in our changing world. The event will be held at the Sheraton Grand Hotel in the centre of Edinburgh in the first floor conference area.

During the day, BSI hope to introduce leaders from the UK, European and international standards communities to local industrialists, innovators and entrepreneurs to debate the role of standards in accelerating innovation and to answer questions on how the national, European and international systems can help industry achieve its goals.

The audience will include senior executives from the leading European national standards bodies; the President, President Elect and new Secretary General of ISO; senior representatives from other international standards bodies; officials from the European Commission; UK Government representatives; BSI technical committee members and representatives from industry, local government and NGOs.

‘Standards Matter’ will be based around four main themes:

1. Standards supporting global growth: Standards and international trade and Smarter regulation
2. Innovation in a digital world: Autonomy and transport in a fully connected world
3. Future of standards development: The future of collaboration, New ways of working, developing and sharing content in a digital world,
4. Our future society: The circular economy, BS 8001 – Framework for implementing circular economy principles in organizations, Approaches to the circular city, Progress towards UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), Building trust in a digital world.

The full agenda is be available on the BSI website: www.bsigroup.com/standards-matter-17

The event will highlight the role that voluntary business standards can be used by business to facilitate international trade, improve business performance, support innovation and promote quality and environmental and risk management.