More than ever before

Every year we are working hard preparing, but this year we worked harder than ever before. Every year we are worrying and rooting very much, but this year we did it more than ever before. Every year we want it very much, but this year we wanted it more than ever before. Every year we are grateful and proud, but this year we felt these more than ever before…

This is how I can summarise in what ways this year’s Business Days conference was different than on the previous 15 occasions. This year is different from every perspective, it isn’t like any other year, but it is also true that we needed everything more than ever before.

I think we made the right decision. At least this is what those people said who were there with us – a bit more than 500 representatives of the FMCG sector during the four days of the conference. Although this number doesn’t mean anything in itself, it tells a lot that since the end of the lockdown there has been no professional occasion in the sector where this many people gathered. I would like to thank everyone for this, those who were brave enough to come or simply just wanted to be there with us, and I would also like to say thank you to those who wanted to be there with us but for some reason couldn’t – because I know that their thoughts wandered our way.

We have never before made this many efforts to guarantee that everyone was safe. Plus let’s not forget that the rules and regulations also made it more difficult to organise the professional programmes, to utilise the opportunities offered by the venue and to have fun at the entertainment programmes. Still, we managed to overcome all the obstacles and could spend four days together like we were looking at the world around us from a safe little island, discussing what has happened and what is going to happen…

The problem is that we don’t really know what is going to happen. Everyone is making plans for next year and they are preparing with minimum three scenarios: a pessimistic one, an optimistic scenario and one somewhere in between. We will only know one year from now which scenario we had to use.

Next year is going to be a difficult one and an import part of this year is still ahead of us, too, as Christmas is coming whatever happens to the world and everyone wants to be happy at Christmas, no matter what the conditions are. There is going to be a funny New Year’s Eve as well, when lots of people will have a glass of champagne at 23.00 and go to sleep afterwards, as the current regulations don’t allow organising big parties either. I think that this has never happened before either. There are other things like this but right now I don’t really care about them, my view is that this many changes are enough for now and let’s leave the rest for the next 100 years…

Zsuzsanna Hermann, Editor in Chief