Magazine: A vision for the future in 2020

After wording a vision for the future in 2016, the guild prepared a new document this year. President of the guild László Selmeczi talked to our magazine about their experiences from the past 4 years and the plans for the future:

László Selmeczi
president
National Guild of Hungarian Confectioners

‘We successfully realised the goals that we set for ourselves back in 2016. The number of members and the revenue from membership fees are now stable, we have more employees at the guild and restructured the presidency. We started or completed many major projects, from the Cake of Hungary to the sweeTEN 1.0 and 2.0 confectioner talent training programme, plus the guild became the professional partner of the Sirha Budapest trade show. The guild invited master confectioners from abroad to give courses and organised study trips to various European countries for 117 confectioners. Our future strategy rests on the following two pillars.’

The new headquarters and educational workshop

‘We operate the educational workshop with three main objectives, within the framework of projects that run at the same time: 1. further education for confectioners, teaching them new things such as the technologies for making traditional desserts and informing them about the latest international trends; 2. preparing confectioners for the master’s exam and organising the exam, in order to raise the prestige of the term ‘master confectioner’; 3. preparing talented young confectioners for domestic and international competitions.

„We have to become a dominant actor of major gastronomic events in Hungary”

Consumer programmes and better communication

‘Producing high quality desserts and communicating this will become even more important in the future than it was before. Our tasks include: creating a new, modern image for the guild and its most important projects (Cake of Hungary, Ice Cream of the Year); turning Ice Cream of the Year into a festival, a travelling roadshow that visits the cities of Hungary; organising new regional and national promotions and programmes to popularise artisan confectionery; communicating professionally and effectively to raise the prestige of the guild and its programmes.’ //