The annual conference this year was held in Prague and has brought together close to 100 industry members to discuss future opportunities, European legislation and trends of “the new normal”.
With the motto “A hard look at where the industry will be in 1,2 and 5 years”, at midday 19th May the conference brought together industry members to discuss future opportunities in a post-COVID era.
The conference was kicked off by a panel discussion where delegates asked questions about new directions and trends in the industry. ETIRA’s Secretary General Vincent van Dijk talked about happenings in Brussels and explained a bit more about the European Commissions thinking on future legislation, now the VA was rejected. Next up was Maxime Furkel (Head of Government Affairs EMEA at Lexmark), who explored how an EU funded project could help boost the circularity of the printing industry.
The day was rounded off with a presentation by Javier Martinez, President of ETIRA who talked about market surveillance, followed up by a panel discussion how what delegates learned during the day about happenings in Europe might become new opportunities for industry members.
The consensus of the day was that the industry is ready to look to the future with a new invigorated spirit, looking at new opportunities within the European market.
After the members only ETIRA AGM, delegates met for the drinks reception, kindly sponsored by GM Technology, which this year included a wine tasting. Just before delegates were ready to sit down for dinner, The Recycler Awards were presented by Thorsten Pree of Speed Infotech who kindly sponsored the awards.
Winners this year were:
Remanufacturer of the Year – KMP AG
Supplier of the Year – Static Control Components
Reseller of the Year – Biuromax
Collector of the Year – ECS-The Greener Side
Customer Service of the Year – Katun
Marketing Campaign of the Year – GM Technology
And all of this…while the industry’s worst kept secret broke – Clover Imaging Group is set to exit the European market. For months there have been rumours and information floating around that CIG is looking to exit the European market. It has now been confirmed with the very unfortunate news of closures of sales offices and quite a few people loosing their jobs. But as the news broke and delegates were discussing the news over dinner, the future looks bright and as one company exits, others see it as a new opportunity to grow.
As I write, the second and last day of the conference has started and while the delegates learn about “CRM- best practices”, a workshop run by Zoltan Matyas of GM Technology and Deborah Hawkins of Keypoint Intelligence sharing her insights about Document Trends in the new normal, I sit here and I can just say: “Thank you to our sponsors to jumped on board on such short notice to make this event possible. We are all talking about how amazing it is to just be together again and speak face to face. A big thank you also to our speakers who came together to create a great informative and thought provoking conference programme.
“But most of all thank you to all the delegates who made (in some cases the very difficult) journey to listen, discuss, learn and network during the event. It’s been amazing to see you all again and to hear your thoughts and insights. I so very much look forward to the next event!”
P.S If you have any special location requests (some suggestions have been put to me already) please let me know we consider any ideas and maybe The Recyler Live is due to come to “a city near you” very soon!
