Summa Cum Laude

This article is available for reading in Trade magazin 2024/10

In other words: everyone graduated with an excellent result from this year’s FMCG Open University at the Trade Campus, situated in the University Town of Tapolca. Yes, these words only entered the vocabulary of our Business Days conference this year, for the more than 1,000 participants who were with us on 23-27 September. We are grateful to all of them for deciding to dedicate these 5 days to spending their time with FMCG professionals, decision-makers or as we called them: “Professors”. Thanks to the Professors for their great presentations and insightful and exciting roundtable discussions, and last but not least to all our supporters who trusted us again this year and took on the key positions.

The conference gave us a lot, just like it does every year. You could say we got a whole year’s worth, not just in knowledge but also in experience, in atmosphere, in energy, in being together and enjoying shared moments as part of this big Family – whether it is a serious topic or laughing at a joke, sitting down and listening to a dazzling train of thought or relaxing with others in the evening. We hope that everyone managed to get a slice of our university life and return home with good memories, continuing with their daily routine, so that we can meet again one year from now on 22-26 September.

It is needless to say a lot will happen before then. We have an exciting autumn and Christmas season ahead of us, which starts with huge question marks. Some believe it will be good because savings will be spent, others reckon it is better to be cautious, because if you don’t have money to shop on weekdays, you won’t have in the holiday season either. We are confident that there will be a happy golden mean and we won’t be disappointed this Christmas.

We want to ride this positive wave next year. Some people believe that even a miracle wouldn’t be enough to help us in 2025, as there is nothing to build our optimism on for the time being, but there are others who are already thinking ahead to 2026 and are just now giving mercy to 2025 in their plans… In any case, what we see today – as we saw this time a year ago – is sailing through uncertain waters in uncertain weather, looking for safe land, and we can probably sail on for some time to come. We learned a lot from each other at the FMCG Open University, how captains steered their ships over the past year and what kind of logbook they kept, many experiences were shared and we were able to find safe mooring places while looking into the future… But the picture book has also revealed another motif that many of us probably remember: “it is like being in intensive care, one has to keep a constant eye on events”!

Best regards,

Zsuzsanna Hermann, Editor in Chief