#ABSTConference2018

Firstly, we would like to thank everyone who attended conference this year! We are sure that you will all agree it was a great conference, enjoyed by all and we hope that everyone enjoyed themselves, learnt something new about baking and made some new friends. We also wanted to take the opportunity to look back at last weekend and highlight some of the great things that went on. So if you didn't attend this year, and are thinking of coming next time you can see what it is all about!

Friday Highlights
#HireMe Careers Fair
It was great to see both industry and bakery students & trainees networking during the Friday afternoon for our #HireMe activity, where representatives from industry had the chance to inspire and encourage bakery students and trainees to pursue careers within baking, as well as increasing their skills and knowledge. We had some great feedback from students and the baking industry saying how it was very useful to network and share knowledge with each other. 
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Zombie Gingerbread Man Competition
We also held our new competition on the Friday afternoon where students & trainees had to decorate their own #ZombieGingerbread man. These were judged just before our AGM by our President Sara Autton and President Elect Jimmy Griffin. Well done to Stephanie Jones for winning!

 #ZombieApocalypse themed Friday evening
As always, our Friday night was a themed evening which was voted on at the previous years conference. This year it was Zombie Apocalypse and everyone dressed up as either zombies or zombie hunters. There was some great creation involved in some of the costumes, and to see more see the below video! Congratulations to our winners who won £50 each for best fancy dress.

Saturday Highlights
​Competitions
Saturday at conference is all about competitions! We were overwhelmed with some of the entries this year. The skills used to produce these products were of a very high standard. While our student and trainee members were out making use of the water park ad crazy golf, our judges were hard at work marking all of your entries. Here's a sneak peak of what happened behind closed doors on the Saturday morning as well as some of the pictures of entries on the day!

#LobTheCob Final
Every year we hold our #LobTheCob final at conference. This took place on Saturday afternoon with University College Birmingham, London Southbank University, Limerick College, Tameside College and Dublin Institute of Technology all competing to be crowned #LobTheCob Champion 2018. Congratulations to Tameside and Limerick for winning!

Saturday Evening - Black Tie Awards Ceremony
On Saturday evening we hold our Black Tie awards ceremony where it is the chance for everyone to celebrate the hard work put into competitions, and receive their awards on stage. ​This year we also awarded two long serving members an honorary life award which was Colin Lomax and Dawn Gemmell. Both have served the ABST for many years and the awards were very well deserved. 

The ABST aims to support bakery students and trainees during their training, by offering opportunities to network with industry and encourage the skills needed across the baking industry. We would like to thank everyone that attended conference this year, and we look forward to welcoming you all to conference 2019 next year. Don't forget in the mean time all of the other opportunities that are available, such as our #HireMe scheme. We will update you via our website and social media throughout the year with any opportunities, so like and follow us to stay updated! 

​Christopher Foxall
Communication Secretary