EVA Vending Business Days
In September 2014, the National Vending Association of Russia (RNVA) hosted a meeting of the Executive Committee of EVA (European Vending Association), heads of European National Vending Associations and representatives of Japan Vending Machine Manufacturers Association (JVMA) in St Petersburg.
“Meetings of the Executive Committee of EVA are traditionally organized by leading European associations”, comments Boris Belotserkovsky, President of RNVA. “Russian association plays an important role in the European community, so we asked to host this regular meeting of EVA. I am sure that our colleagues found it really interesting to see what progress and achievements in vending we have made. They were also able to participate in useful meetings and have fruitful dialogues in one of the most beautiful cities in Europe”.
A regular business meeting of the Executive Committee of EVA took place on 3rd September.Representatives of different vending sectors and the EVA President, Jan Marck Vrijlandt discussed several issues that the industry is currently facing, the implementation of goals set-up earlier this year, among which it has been reported that the cooperation between EVA and the National Associations (NAs) is now better.
In addition to the above mentioned meeting on the first day of the official program, a meeting of the Marketing & communication committee of EVA took place. Participants of the meeting made a number of suggestions for better serving the National Associations They also made some proposals on how to attract new members. Besides, they proposed some amendments to the marketing & communication strategy of the European Vending Association.
In the evening all participants were invited to a ship where a gala dinner took place; the evening was sponsored by UNICUM. The guests were able to see an amazing sunset on the River Neva. This dinner was attended by several representatives of the vending industry from Europe, Japan and the USA.
“Alongside professional seminars for vending industry, whose main aims are discussing innovative trends, exchanging experience, solving problems and promoting vending in Russia,
RNVA has also introduced the practice of business dinners where you can discuss all current issues in an informal environment”, says Viktor Vasilyev, CEO of RNVA.
On September 4, the second day of the official program was as busy as the first one. There was an EVA/JVMA Roundtable discussion with the Japan Vending Machine Manufacturers Association (JVMA). Mr. Takeda, President of JVMA, and Mr. Kurosaki, Director General, represented the Japanese Association and EVA with Erwin Wetzel, Director General. More than 25 representatives around the vending world took part to the discussion.
The main topics of the Roundtable were a presentation about the European markets and trends, the latest offers of Japanese vending industry and the structure of vending business in Japan as well as the differences between European and oriental markets. The presentations were followed by a long question and answer session and interesting discussions.
In the afternoon there was held a meeting of the heads of National Associations of Europe. This meeting has already become one of the most popular events in vending. Russia, Spain, the UK, Germany, Italy, Austria, France, Hungary, Sweden, Poland, Rumania and Switzerland took part in the meeting, which was chaired by Erwin Wetzel, EVA Director General.
The participants discussed major national problems, news and proposals of the Executive and Marketing Committees during three hours. It is worth mentioning that many associations face similar problems in their countries. Having acquired experience in solving them, they can later share this experience with other associations.
As part of the meeting of National Associations, Caffe Carraro, Golden sponsor of the official program, made a presentation of its goods. As for sponsors, apart from Caffe Carraro and UNICUM, organizers of the event attracted four other companies – JCM, Suzo, Regilait, FleXoco. Thus, they managed to raise €15 000.
This money was spent on plane tickets and hotels, which also contributed to high attendance.
As part of the official program, all guests visited UNICUM plant in Kolpino. Everybody was impressed by the potential of the new manufacturing site.
The organizing committee of the event is still getting thank-you letters from the participants:
Michele Evolvi, CONFIDA, Italy:
“Your hospitality was magnificent and it has made everything so pleasant. This is due to your great organizational skills, we really appreciated your professionalism and your great willingness and patience. Brava! We kindly ask you to bring our thanks to the President Boris who made possible this wonderful event!”.
Javier Arquerons, ANEDA, Spain:
“With this email I want to thank personally the excellent treatment received during our stay in Russia as well as the excellent organization of the event. In Spain we say that the events can be organized very bad, bad, fair, good, excellent, or as you have organized! Such events are very necessary for our industry. Again many congratulations and thank you very much for everything. See you soon!”.
Aris Kashefi, BDV, Germany:
“Thank you indeed for having organized this great event in St. Petersburg. I had the opportunity to take lots of good ideas and fruitful discussions either than many nice impressions from this beautiful town! All the best and see you next time in Brussels!».