Hans Kremser (on the left of the picture) receives the congratulations from the outgoing President Roger Persson.
The two day meeting in Stockholm, Roger Persson’s home city, was to cover Working Group Meetings, the Board Meeting and then the General Assembly making it a busy 2 days. In amongst the subject matter were topics such as education standards for the sign industry across Europe (Education Working Group) Dark Skies, EN1090, CE Marking and other Eurocodes (Technical Working Group) promoting the standards of the ESF to European Sign Makers, lobbying opportunities to the European legislators, the future of the European Sign Exhibition which will be held in May 2015 in Cologne (Koln) Germany (Marketing Working Group).
Attendees came from UK, USA, France, Germany, Holland, Turkey, Finland, Belgium, Greece and Sweden. With the World Cup reaching the quarter finals during the 2 days, there were some interesting conversations and good humoured rivalry regarding each countries progress in this event. The UK delegates of course nodded politely at the right time considering our 4 nations’ contribution to the world wide stage of soccer this year and felt that silence may the the better option in this debate!
It was during the General Assembly that Hans Kremser from Lichtwerber Deutschland (the German Sign Association) received his President’s Badge from the outgoing President Roger Persson from Ljusreklamforbundet (the Swedish Sign Association) Also presented with their badges were Vice President Manos Korres from Sekife (the Greek Sign Association) and second Vice President Halil Eligur from Acikhave Reklamcilari Dernegi (the Turkish Sign Association)
Pictured above are (l to r) Manos Korres, Hans Kremser, Roger Persson and Halil Eligur.
Herr Kremser will remain President for 2 years and in his speech of thanks to the ESF Board and delegates , he said that the next few years will be defining ones in the sign industry with new codes of practice and advances in technology that will mean that unless the industry is prepared for change, then a lot of sign makers will fall by the wayside. It is the duty of the ESF to inform and support the industry across Europe in the bast way possible and the coming together of many countries Sign Associations within the ESF to debate, resolve and implement matters is the best way forward.
Once the hard work had been done during the 2 days, there was the opportunity to have a guided tour of Stockholm in a very eco-friendly way, that is by bicycle and even finding time to visit the Abba museum along the way.
The next meeting of the ESF is in October 2014 and will be held in Edam in the Netherlands.
European Sign Federation