End of Start-Up Nation seminar. First impressions.

Yesterday, 17 October 2018, I attended the seminar organised by Felder Gruppe Romania with the theme Start-Up Nation 2018. I want to tell you from the start that, for me, it was a great success and I'll tell you why. On 2 October, about two weeks ago, I published the first article about the Felder Gruppe Romania initiative. It was more of a presentation of an initiative, a test of interest. Not knowing the number of those interested, it was not possible to book a room that corresponded to the capacity. There were many unknowns involved. Nevertheless, the reaction of those interested was so strong that Felder Gruppe Romania managed to organise a fully-fledged symposium in just two weeks, with no dead time and lively debates throughout. And here we are talking about the period between 15:00-19:30 while we were there. The symposium was over and people were still discussing in small groups, exchanging information. Two breaks had been scheduled and, due to interest, only one was taken. Almost unbelievable to me. People were eager for information. In just two weeks.

The quality of the speakers and presentations was of a very high standard. No sooner had Silvia Băcanu from Intermind Business Consulting started speaking than she was interrupted by questions. From that point on, the debate was at a very high level, with questions and answers coming and going.

The coffee break was then passed and it was the turn of Stefan Udroiu from Banca Transilvania to face the questions from the audience. A high level of debate in this case as well, interesting and honest analyses and statistics presented by the BT representative. Appreciate that the less pleasant things that will be faced by those who will apply were also said. The idea was to see how we can make things work together.

After the only break it was the organiser's turn to present their products. Paul Nastase did a very good job in my opinion. In addition to presenting Felder Gruppe Romania, the team and the products sold, Paul continued to communicate honestly with people, comparing Felder products with others on the market, presenting the advantages Felder has over other competitors.

The symposium concluded with case studies related to the experiences of those who applied for Start-Up Nation 2017. Even they were subjected to the barrage of questions from the audience. To their great credit, they had a lot of humour and the discussions were very friendly. They are Marius Mihalca from Triple Wood, Tulcea (hive production) and Iulian Apostol - MDI Wood Ideas, Bucharest (furniture made of chipboard, MDF and solid wood).

As a conclusion, I think what Felder Gruppe Romania has achieved with this symposium is a great thing for the wood industry. Specifically, there are 10,000 eligible projects at stake throughout the country. Each project can attract up to around 44,000 euros. The better we communicate the opportunities and offers related to this topic, the more of the maximum 440.000.000 euro we attract to the wood industry. This is why I say that Felder Gruppe Romania has helped us all by organising this symposium and for this I thank them.

Talking today with Maria Arbone, Marketing Director at Felder Gruppe Romania, I found out that, in addition to those from Bucharest and nearby areas, there were participants from Iasi, Cluj, Dolj and Tulcea. Another interesting thing to note is that Felder Gruppe Romania is preparing to organize 4 (four) more seminars in different parts of the country. Now that's a smart marketing move!

We will come back to the topic to discuss at length the conditions that must be met in order to apply this year for the Start-up Nation programme and other topics that were intensely debated last night.

Until then, see you on Saturday 20 October at Wood-Mizer Customer Dayin Sibiu.