In this forthcoming, IXth edition of the Congress, QUALICER broadens its contents, which could be termed traditional and which basically refer to quality in ceramic tile manufacturing and installation.

QUALICER is envisaged, from now on, as a forum for debate, not only on the quality of the ceramic tile process, product and installation, but also on the quality of all the elements, strategies and options that make up the complex network of the ceramic business world.

Both the Chamber of Commerce and the College of Industrial Engineers, as co-organisers of the Congress, are clear it will prove beneficial for the worldwide ceramic tile industry to explore together the existing problems and to seek possible solutions; they thus call upon all the interested parties to participate in QUALICER 2006 by submitting work on their specialty.

This will therefore enable presenting papers and posters at QUALICER on subjects as wide-ranging as company strategy, competitiveness in a global market, marketing, ceramic tile distribution systems, creation of a trademark, communication, knowledge and innovation management, etc. These topics and many more have been brought together in a new theme block, which is incorporated for the first time into the Congress.

QUALICER wishes to widen its target audience and invites the participation of all those who have something to contribute to the improvement of the ceramic tile Sector from the perspective of a globalised world.

In particular, QUALICER invites the following groups to participate in the 2006 Congress:

• raw materials suppliers
• researchers
• technicians from ceramic tile factories
• technicians from glaze and ceramic colour factories
• technicians from ceramic machinery factories
• manufacturers of equipment for reducing emissions
• adhesives manufacturers
• ceramic tile distributors
• architects and building directors
• designers
• interior designers
• builders and building contractors
• directors and managers of ceramic companies
• sales representatives
• specifications writers
• specialists in restoration and renovation
• financiers
• etc...