11th DIY & Home Improvement Conference: Athens

The 11th DIY & Home Improvement Conference was held on Wednesday 5 December, at Maroussi Plaza Centre in a packed conference room and in the presence of senior executives from all major companies, large delegations from all the departments of major retail chains and with an impressive representation of the traditional market.

This year’s conference gathered 220 representatives from 82 Greek, Cypriot and international enterprises from the tools, paints and construction materials market whereas what was equally important was the presence of major, important companies operating in the field of home renovation and home improvement. The motto of this year’s Conference was ‘’Market limits change”, with the agenda being:

* Market outlook: All the latest financial information

* Retailers and suppliers working together: Addressing the challenges together

* Home improvement: On the rise and giving a boost to DIY

* Retail Αnalytics: The future of commerce

* Millennials - Generations Y, Z - Baby boomers – Silent: The new ‘’generations’’ of consumers and the ‘’ideal customer experience’’

* DIY Startup Arena: Innovative ideas that need to be utilised

Distinguished foreign speakers predicted development and innovation.

Specifically, Steve Collinge, Managing Director, Insight Retail Group UK, outlined the reasons behind the consumers’ dynamic shift from DIY to DIFM as well as the structure of the commercial channels that need to be set up in the market so that this trend can be utilised to the maximum extent.

The highlight of the conference was the presence of Amazon. 

Andreas Apostolidis, Vendor Success Senior Manager, Amazon, elaborated on the advanced tools and pioneering technologies of the company, which are deployed in customer involvement, the establishment of better business processes and the development of new products. This is the way in which the DIY & Home Improvement companies should operate in the future.

In addition, the Belgian Biren van Herck, a genius in Retail Analytics and CDO & CO-founder, Pro-Alliance, analysed in his own, eloquent way, how we can export substantial value from “Big Data” and “Data Analytics”.

Finally, Jean Marc Hupe, ex-Vice-President of Adeo Group and, currently, the President of Aksiess, having put to good use the large amount of information gathered throughout his term in senior executive positions and having experienced the state of affairs in Greece from up-close, shared with the conference participants his proposals in order for enterprises to remain innovative, properly focused on consumer needs and sustainable in a fast-evolving world.

In this year’s conference, the DIY Lifetime Award was presented to Vechro President & Managing Director, Katerina Chatzinikola-Dima, and to Vechro Vice-President & Commercial Director, Panagiotis Chatzinikolas, thus acknowledging the many years of contribution to DIY & Home Improvement by the Chatzinikolas family.

The sponsors of the 11th DIY & Home Improvement Conference are the companies Kärcher, Praktiker Hellas, Vector Brands and Vitex whereas the supporters of the conference are the companies Kraft Paints, StanleyBlack&Decker, V33 and Vechro.

Source : 11th DIY & Home Improvement Conference

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