Delegates Delighted With 7th Global DIY Summit 2019

At the end of the 7th Global DIY Summit, the delegates, using a voting tool, gave this event an overwhelming 72% as ‘very good’ to ‘excellent’ with a further 23% rating the event as ‘good’. Approximately 1,000 delegates from 55 countries attended the congress, which included over 300 of the top retailers in our sector from around the world. 

Due to the highly multicultural audience attending the Summit this year, the Voting Tool produced some very interesting results. Our audience was predominantly male, at 82% of the total number of delegates. This year over 30% of the audience were retailers, whilst suppliers are still the largest share among the different types of attendees: approximately 60% of the delegates were manufacturers.

Moreover, companies not necessarily working in the industry or, at least, not 100% related to it (for example: consultant firms, trade fair organisations, universities, etc.) also showed a growing participation, at 10% of the total.

Regarding the expectations our delegates have for their business growth for this year compared to last year, 21% are very optimistic as they estimate it will be better than 10%; around 37% of the audience was more cautious, only forecasting growth of up to 4%.

It was most encouraging for us as organisers that the delegates using the Voting Tool labelled our congress to be a world-class event. The next Global DIY Summit will be held in Amsterdam on 10-12 June 2020. Over 58% of delegates have already confirmed their participation in next year’s Summit.

Kick-off of the 7th Global DIY Summit 2019 in Dublin

On Wednesday 5 June, delegates were given the opportunity to attend a Store Tour of Dublin and the surrounding area. Visiting some exceptionally well-managed outlets, delegates were thrilled to learn how stores such as B&Q, Homebase and Woodie’s, as well as the family-managed stores TileStyle, T J O’Mahony & Sons Limited and Grange Builders Providers HomeValue Hardware, were adapting to satisfy their customers’ needs. In total 330 delegates took part in the store tour, consisting of 6 buses visiting 6 DIY stores of top quality.

Two workshops, focused on maintaining brand awareness and remaining relevant in times of disruption, gave delegates the chance to work in an interactive atmosphere. These workshops, run by USP Marketing Consultancy and EIMIA, were a success with all attendees coming away with insights into how to run their businesses.

The Global DIY Summit kicked-off with a Get Together at the number one tourist attraction in Ireland; the Guinness Store House. Detailing the history of the world-renowned drink, delegates were presented with an excellent networking event to start the Summit.

DIY EVOLUTION – Designing the Future Together

This year’s motto was “DIY EVOLUTION – Designing the Future Together”. The speakers gave outstanding presentations on innovation, digital platforms as new business models worldwide, how to prepare your team to embrace digital transformation, Asia as a new innovation leader worldwide, political and economic forecasts, DIY logistics and a global overview of home improvement stores around the world. The general perception of the global economy was positive, and most of the speakers forecast more innovation and growth within the next few years.

On the first day, Alexander Börsch (Deloitte) presented a Global Economic and Political Overview and highlighted the risks and advantages within the era of the Trump Presidency, Brexit and other challenges worldwide. The high expectations for the presentation from the President and CEO of Ace Hardware, John Venhuizen, were fulfilled with his impressive keynote; “The Heart of a Leader”. The presentations from Barbara Kahn (The Wharton School) and Nancy Rademaker (nexxworks) were particular highlights of the first day, along with the Panel Discussion, moderated by Steve Collinge (Insight Retail Group), where top industry leaders from our sector (Sergio Giroldi [OBI], Hartmut Jenner [Alfred Kärcher], Erwin van Osta [Hubo] and Vincent Legros [Bostik]) exchanged views on why innovation really matters to survive and prosper in this era of disruption.

The second day also saw very interesting presentations, focusing on the growth of Asia as the centre of many technological innovations worldwide including the keynote from Alibaba’s Category Group Leader, Andreas Kerschner. According to our audience, one of the highlights of the Summit was China Evangelist, Pascal Coppens, who delighted all delegates with his presentation; “China’s New Normal”.

As in previous years, facts and figures on new growth markets from around the globe were presented by international companies such as mdj2, CTC Petrovich and Lixil Viva Corporation.

This year’s farewell speech was given by Ibrahim Ibrahim, Managing Director at Portland Design, who talked about the future of retail and the new metrics of winning. Our audience found his speech to be one of the highlights of the event.

In the final wrap-up, both Chairmen of the Global DIY Summit, John W. Herbert (EDRA/GHIN) and Ralf Rahmede (fediyma), agreed that this had been a most interesting, informative and successful event, having received very positive feedback.

At the end of the event, Victoria Neuhofer, Projects and Sales Director at FN Neuhofer Holz, was presented as the winner of the first edition of the Global DIY Influencer Award.

The General Manager of the Global DIY Summit, Iñaki Maillard, said: “It is all about our delegates. We just give them the space for networking and the technological tools to interact, but all the rest is done by them. This event was a success because of all delegates who joined us in Dublin and we, as organisers, are fully committed to them for future editions of the event.”

Source : Insight DIY Team and Global DIY Summit

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