The first ever virtual interactive EMVA Business Conference on 26 June attracted over 130 participants and received an overwhelmingly positive response to the online format, adopted this year as a consequence of recent Covid-19 travel and distancing restrictions. This sentiment is reflected in the following statements received from participants:
"Very well done! A major undertaking under difficult circumstances but a great success! I always get great value from EMVA events and this was no exception" – Arwyn Roberts, Surface Inspection.
"Very well organized, easy to connect, and informative" – Clemence Boudot, ATD Electronique, France.
"The online conference was very well organized with all the infrastructure and ample Internet bandwidth. In particular I think that following the industry standards and understanding the thinking behind them is a great opportunity. I was also grateful for the 1:1 networking opportunities. I look forward to continued participation" – David L. Fleischer, ADSR, Israel.
In a unique approach to combine webinar and personal online meeting functions, close to 60 face-to-face video meetings were booked during the conference breaks by the participants to bilaterally discuss business opportunities. A traditional feature of previous business conferences, this opportunity to directly interact with other conference participants was highly appreciated, as expressed by the following statement:
"Attending the seminars was made very easy. Personal interaction at 1:1 meetings was a great idea and enabled good discussions." – Christian Offermann, Kowa Optimed Deutschland, Germany.
The conference organizers were thrilled about the way this unique online conference concept, necessitated by the global pandemic, was adopted by the industry. "We not only happily donate the income from ticket sales for this event to the WHO COVID-19 Solidarity Response Fund. In addition, we will also soon enable access to the presentations given in the Vision Knowledge Section on our website" says EMVA General Manager Thomas Lübkemeier and added with respect to classic conference setup: "While we are delighted with the highly positive feedback to this online event, we are also really looking forward to our next physical Business Conference which is scheduled to take place 10 - 12 June 2021 in Sofia, Bulgaria."
