The BPCA team took home awards in all four nominated categories at the 2026 Memcom Award, plus the coveted Grand Prix Award.
The Memcom Membership Excellence Awards are designed to showcase the best of the membership and trade association sector.
BPCA won in three categories:
- Best Use of Video for Pest Careers
- Best Inclusion Initiative for Pest Careers
- Best Public Awareness Campaign for Birmingham’s bin strikes.
BPCA also received the highly commended award for Best Non-Celebratory Event (£100K+) for PestEx 2026.
As a result, BPCA also took home the coveted Grand Prix Award, given to the organisation that accumulates the highest overall score based on its wins and highly-commended entries across all categories during the ceremony.
BPCA chief executive Rosina Robson said: “What a special night for BPCA! Such a huge achievement to take home a trophy for every category we were nominated in and we couldn’t be more elated.
“It’s a real testament to the hard work of our staff team and of course, our volunteers, who share in this win with us.”
Mrs Robson continued: “That brings the total to seven awards this year, a banner year for the team on the awards front. Wish us luck for the Association Excellence Awards this November!”
Best Use of Video
BPCA created ‘Drive The Talk/Split The Difference’ because the sector has a serious workforce issue and an image problem to match.
“We needed to reach beyond the usual audience and show the profession for what it really is,” Mrs Robson said, “skilled, varied, people-focused work that protects public health, food businesses, homes and communities.”
The script was developed with BPCA’s EDI Committee and Outreach Committee, which helped BPCA make sure the film felt inclusive, honest and grounded in the reality of the job.
The extras were real pest professionals and BPCA volunteers.
Best Non-Celebratory Event (£100k+)
Held at Excel London on March 18–19 2026, PestEx welcomed over 2,100 attendees and 125 exhibitors.
Mrs Robson said: “It was the largest PestEx ever, with the biggest floorplan in the show’s history, 100% of available exhibition space sold, and visitor numbers recovering strongly back towards post-Covid levels.”
Best Inclusion Initiative
Nearly 40% of today’s pest management workforce is expected to retire within the next decade, while only around 4-4.5% of the sector is made up of women.
Put simply, our profession has been drawing from a very narrow talent pool for too long. Our sector protects public health, food safety and the environment, but it also faces a serious workforce challenge.
Mrs Robson said: “From creating a permanent committee of the Board dedicated to Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI), an EDI toolkit and an onboarding framework, to a fully-fledged recruitment advert, the Committee has been working non-stop to improve the state of recruitment in the industry through an EDI lense.”
Best Public Awareness Campaign
When Birmingham’s bin strikes left rubbish piling up in the streets, BPCA saw a public health problem getting worse by the day.
BPCA wanted to raise awareness of the pest risks linked to uncollected waste, signpost residents and businesses to qualified BPCA members, strengthen the association’s role as a trusted voice on public health pest issues, and test whether paid media could amplify urgent advice in a small geographic area.
Scott Johnstone, BPCA’s marketing, technology and communications manager, said: “The campaign was really successful. It was BPCA’s first hyper-local paid media campaign, and we combined outdoor, print, digital, video and PR to turn a fast-moving local issue into clear, practical advice.”
