By Dr. Aydan Bekirov | RechargEast Magazine

On November 14-16th 2005, the last ReFortunEast seminar for the year 2005 was held in Movenpick Hotel, Prague. The main difference between this seminar and the previous ones was the new initiative called "Owners and Sponsors Only!". The first day was entirely dedicated to the sponsors and the owners of Czech recycling companies. The hall where the meeting took place, was rather smaller, yet it gathered 25 participants who exchanged information and knowledge for the duration of the whole day. Firstly, the owners of Czech recycling companies presented their speeches, (in alphabetical order of their surnames) and Mr. Milan Macuga from ABEL opened the Round Table. The first Round Table's chairman was the incomparable Mr. Petr Handl, who translated both in English and Czech. Each owner of the Czech recycling companies were provided with sufficient time to present himself and his company, as well as briefly point out his opinion of the Czech recycling industry's status. After all owners had presented what each of them had to say, Mr. Handl opened the panel discussion. Again we were all impressed with the high level of the discussions carried out. Irrespective of the infamous "friendly" relations between the owners of Czech recycling companies, the questions and answers were of most moderate and civilized nature. The international sponsors also took part in the panel discussion and we sincerely hope that this Round Table helped them get ideas about various aspects of the Czech recycling industry.

The afternoon's Round Table was dedicated to the international sponsors and was chaired by Ramon van Raij, Marketing Manager of Oasis Europe. For three hours the international sponsors presented plenty of information about the status, and mainly the tendencies in the recycling industry outside the Czech Republic. During the Round Table, Czech recyclers asked many questions and it was clear that each of them were interested a great deal in the recycling industry's course of development. Since the panel discussion did not manage to answer all questions immediately after the Round Table, the Czech recyclers and the international sponsors had the opportunity to go on with the discussions in either private, or small groups around the hotel's halls for another three hours.





Our very classy, gala dinner began at 7pm and ended around midnight, and I'd love to share what happened…but I feel it would be best if I weren't to comment on it, instead I will let the photos prove that the "Owners and Sponsors Only!" initiative was a very successful experiment. You would not see so many "friendly" competitors, (such as Static, Oasis, Uninet, Delacamp, Pelikan, OCP, Coates and others) at any other gathering. They were not fighting, but in fact embracing each other! This event is certain to go down in ReFortunEast history representing the atmosphere of the ReFortunEast seminars and the civilized behavior of all sponsors!

The second day of the seminars was open to all visitors, and all sponsors had their own stands where they could present their products. In the two seminar halls, various marketing and educational lectures were presented all day long. The marketing seminars were opened with a presentation of Oasis (event sponsor), and the educational ones - with a very interesting lecture by Elmer St?wer of Coates. Within 45 minutes, the history of toner production was reviewed and the "chemical toners tendency" was clarified. The lecture was carried out in a very intelligible language and aroused lively discussions. In a small hall Oasis and the Czech company Toner Recycling presented "How to…?" instructions. Inquisitive technicians representative of Czech recycling companies had the chance to learn how Oasis and Toner Recycling Group remanufacture the HP1010, HP1200, Lexmark E310, HP 2100 and HP 2500 cartridges. Following that, the long-awaited competition "The fastest RechargEast" took place. The difference between this seminar's and the previous four seminar's competitions was only in the wine, which had changed to a pleasant red wine "Made in the Czech Republic". Some of the competitors had brought some noisy upholders who eagerly supported them with exclamations and applause. The winners were announced 1st, 2nd and 3rd respectively:Robert Fajman (EcoToner), Rudolf Krabs (Printwell), and Radek Pliska (Hyko)

The prizes won from the competition were bestowed by Oasis (event sponsor).





The third day was dedicated to the Czech association, and the first lecture was held by Vincent van Dijk - General Manager of ETIRA. Within half an hour he presented the structure of the European association and its tasks. His lecture was followed by a Round Table about the Czech association. Mr. Jindrich Mach, President of the Czech association, concisely presented the association's status once again, and also explained which tasks and goals of this young industrial association are. The questions and answers session was most lively, especially due to the fact that the civilized tone was preserved, and we congratulate all participants on that! The most discussed issue was the one concerning the membership criteria, as well as the methods for testing the cartridges' quality. No explicit conclusions were drawn, but at the very least, the discussions were initiated and we hope that Czech companies will find the right way during their following meetings, and that the association will soon accept many new members.

At 1 PM the "Open House" initiative began and a separate bus took all willing on a tour around two of the leading recycling companies in the Czech Republic. The first was ECOTONER, and second, we visited the new facilities of Toner Recycling Group. I think it's easy to say that we were all impressed by what we saw! Mr. Pavel Prochazka, owner of Toner Recycling Group, deserves our unanimous congratulations. Such a modern facility and enterprise are a rarity in Eastern Europe. Everything was worked out to the smallest details and the overall cleanliness was amongst the best we've seen, bar none. After the tour in Toner Recycling Group, all visitors were photographed and I insist on showing this photograph to you because I believe it will be remembered for years to come. As you may have noticed, Mr. Prochazka and Mr. Macuga from ABEL are standing next to each other, so all rumors that they are enemies are most exaggerated! These are two great men and company owners who simply have contradictory opinions about many aspects of the Czech industry. Everything heard elsewhere is rumor and gossip!





The seminar in Prague presented yet another innovation, this one was named the "Validation Form" and it boasted a lottery of 30000 CZK. Each visitor was given a special notice with a list of all the sponsors on it. In order to take part in the lottery, visitors had to meet all sponsors, talk with them and have the notice signed for proof. This experiment proved to be very useful for all sponsors, since they were very much "terrorized" by the visitors. All visitors wanted to meet the sponsors, and most of all to get their signatures. So the sponsors had no reason to state that they didn't have much attendance. On the third day at 12 PM, the lottery was drawn and the winner was Edita Brathova - representative of the Lamda Group from Slovakia.

And the statistics about the seminar in Prague? Over the course of three days, 170 participants from 60 companies visited the halls. The number of sponsors in attendance was… 14, which is the record for the year 2005.



At the end of the year, all the seminars that were hosted are going to be analyzed and the respective conclusions and lessons will be drawn and implemented into the future seminars. This can be most easily achieved by letting the statistics speak:

SPONSORS
As you know, the seminars were free-of-charge and all the costs were absorbed by the sponsors. The first seminar was held in Bulgaria and had three sponsors, while the latest was in the Czech Republic and had 14 sponsors. As a total, the five seminars were sponsored by 41 sponsors and we would like to once again list their names and web pages, as well as to thank them about their exceptional support! Without them, the experiment of the "ReFortunEast Seminars" couldn't have been fulfilled, so they have all reasons to be proud with the success from this initiative!







VISITORS
The five seminars were visited by 510 representatives from 225 companies in Central and Eastern Europe! No other industry initiative can provide you with the possibility to meet over 200 companies form Central and Eastern Europe. The teams from ReFortunEast and RechargEast Magazines, as well as the sponsors have managed to find the right approach towards the region of Central and Eastern Europe.



GOALS OF THE REFORTUNEAST SEMINARS
We have only two clear and comprehensible goals and they are:
- To provide international manufacturers and leading distributors with the opportunity to meet the leaders and elite of CEE without having to travel to 225 locations around the region.
- To organize specialized seminars completely dedicated to recycling companies in CEE, where they can establish contacts with eminent Western companies and get familiarized with the industry's latest trends and development.

CONCLUSION
If you are a producer or distributor of consumables and would like to present yourself before the worldwide recycling industry at minimum costs, the trade shows you need to take part in are:
- USA/Canada - World Expo in Las Vegas;
- Western Europe - REMAX in Barcelona;
- China - ReChina in Shanghai;
- Russia/CIS - RechargEast Show in Moscow;
- Central and Eastern Europe - ReFortunEast seminars.

For the year 2006 our goal is to attract over 300 participants from CEE in the ReFortunEast seminars.
The seminars will be carried out in Poland, Ukraine, Belarus, Turkey and the Czech Republic. Further information is available at www.refortuneast.com.

Once again, the teams from RechargEast and ReFortunEast magazines thank all sponsors and participants for their unreserved support in 2005!!!

publisher@rechargeast.com

From RechargEast Magazine, December 2005 (http://www.rechargeast.com)
facts & opinions (page 46)