Dear Colleagues and dear Friends of EVVC,

A new year has begun and already one is up to his or her ears concerning the questions and topics of the present year. I wish you all the necessary strength, health and serenity to address what is expected of you. 2012 will certainly once again be an exciting year in many ways, both great and small.

In many areas, it will probably depend on the overall development to determine where the journey will take us. How will the euro crisis progress, how will the economy and financial markets react, how much trust will be created or lost? The answers to all these questions will affect how many events will take place in our venues but also which budgets will be available and can be spent in the different areas of the event industry. Here, we will not be able to influence the situation much. But we can draw attention to our event industry and the effectiveness and importance of different types of events. Be it culture, entertainment and sports, social events, meetings and conventions, or what is collectively known as live marketing.

The work of our Service- und Veranstaltungs GmbH, which was established last year, is well under way and will make us even more flexible and effective. Our office, which has already taken on new staff, is as always there for you and will endeavour to answer all your questions at any time.

Even the sometimes arduous small issues are already in full swing again. Thus, the discussion “Is an e-cigarette a cigarette?” has come up at various levels, followed by the question whether one can permit or prohibit the use. Sometimes I think that as long as we don’t have any other major problems we all seem to be doing pretty well and should have good reason to look toward the New Year with a lot of optimism.

Last but not least, I would like to say ‘thank you’ at the end of this newsletter to our dear colleague Dr. Gaida, who will give this first newsletter of 2012 his finishing touch for the final time. For over four years, he has written about many original and exciting developments, often also looking at the bigger picture beyond our industry, and from time to time his commentary also made us look in the mirror. These stimuli and contributions will be sorely missed. A big thank you for the 50 times we were well entertained and informed.


Stay with EVVC.
 
Joachim König
President