Foreword to the ERA Europe News, Spring Edition 2017
Dear ERA Europe Members,
Welcome to the pre-conference Spring edition of our newsletter. We are inbetween two ERA Europe events – the ERA Europe Membership Meeting in Prague and our upcoming Venice Conference.
In Prague, the Membership Meeting resulted in some important decisions. A new board was elected with most of our board members being re-elected. After serving many years on the board, Mike Wells, our former Chairman and Chair of the ERA UK chapter, did not run again. We want to thank Mike as well as the other outgoing board members Rainer Sura, (QVC, Germany), David Martin, (QVC, UK), and Jean-Marc Provost, (Teleshopping FR), who devoted their time to develop and grow our association and serve the interests of the member companies. We are pleased to welcome four new board members, Lars Buschboom, (Mango, Poland), Andrew Malcher, (HighstreetTV, UK), Sergej Mazourik, (Sankom, CH) and Sylvie Mouradien, (Teleshopping, FR).
Good news from the General Assembly in Prague: ERA Europe’s last market survey was conducted in 2012 and was presented at the ERA European Conference in Berlin that year. Now, five years later, the General Assembly has decided to invest in a new market survey which is being conducted by Goldmedia, covering 10 European markets and reviewing customer patterns in five markets. We invite you to take part in the Goldmedia survey - see the interview with Matthias Birkel from Goldmedia to learn more.
Also at the Prague meeting, the jury members for the 2017 EMMAs sat together in line with the new procedure, to discuss the potential 2017 awardees. The award winners will be disclosed on the evening of June 21st at our EMMA Awards ceremony in Venice.
We plan on awarding an exciting new category this year as we have something new at the conference: the Inventors Pitch, which is taking place at the initiative of HSE24. Pre-selected inventors will be invited to present their business ideas, in a public session, to an HSE24 specialist panel on Tuesday 20th June, the first day of our show. An ERA Europe jury will then select the best idea to be presented with a special award at our EMMAs 2017. See the section on HSE Inventors Pitch for more details.
The MCMS will be packed with highlights this year: amongst important topics regarding the future of our industry, highlights will be the above mentioned Goldmedia Market Study, a discussion on the impact of Brexit and a session on Virtual Reality.
Whilst writing these lines, Sandra and her conference team are entering the busy last preparation phase. We have already sold out all our reserved hotel suites and meeting rooms, so, if you are planning to come, register quickly to profit from our discounted room rates and avoid the hotel being booked out.
Please note: the deadline to register for Business Club Tables and Exhibition Booths is 26th May.
Meanwhile we are already turning our attention to a possible new 2018 conference location, but it is too early to reveal more here.
So please enjoy reading this edition. Again we have interesting interviews, articles and the latest news on the industry. We would like to gratefully thank all our contributors who helped us to create this newsletter and encourage you to follow us on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/company/electronic-retailing-association-europe
Best regards,
Dr. Julian Oberndörfer
Chief Executive Officer/ Administrateur Delegués
Electronic Retailing Association Europe