Foreword to the ERA Europe News, Spring 2019

Dear ERA Europe Members, Dear Readers of the ERA Europe News Spring edition,

As usual, our Spring edition is the pre-conference edition of our newsletter. We are between two ERA Europe events - the ERA Europe membership meeting which was held in Munich in January and our upcoming conference in Budapest. REGISTER HERE!

This time of the year is very busy and all of our schedules have been turned upside down as we all try to restructure the global community.

At our annual membership meeting in Munich, we discussed extensively how to ensure the future of our global industry community. Further insights are provided in this edition in the State of the industry report on how we are transitioning from a local to a global association.

The membership assembly not only approved the financials for 2018 and the 2019 budget, but also approved the admittance of new members to the association. In our winter edition we featured an interview with our then newest member Channel21, a German live shopping channel. In this edition we introduce you to Jason Kong, President and CEO of Shark Shopping (a live shopping channel from China), and our most recent new member, who shares his perspective on our industry.

So, what about Budapest? Day one will start with the premiere of our First Timer Speed Business Dating event (we held a pilot event in 2018). This is followed by the second meeting of the State of the Industry Panel. As usual we will host the MCMS Congress on day two, followed by the fantastic EMMA Awards Gala and the new Aftershow Party. We hope you are as excited as we are about the upcoming conference!

Meanwhile we are already scouting Europe to find the best location for the 2020 summer conference. But, as usual, we will not disclose the venue here.

So please enjoy reading this edition. Again we have interesting articles and the latest news on our industry. We gratefully thank all our contributors who helped us create this newsletter and encourage you to follow us on LinkedIn at:

https://www.linkedin.com/company/electronic-retailing-association-europe/

We are looking forward to seeing you all in Budapest.

Best regards,

Dr. Julian Oberndörfer
Chief Executive Officer/ Administrateur Delegués
Electronic Retailing Association Europe