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aaQUALICER is already preparing its call for 2010
Over 5,500 attendees have participated in QUALICER since 1990
“And here concludes QUALICER 2008, the world forum on ceramic tile. We look forward to seeing you all again in 2010”. Salvador Martí Huguet, President of the Castellón Chamber of Commerce, thus ended his speech, closing the three days of the forum that transformed Castellón into the world capital of ceramic quality, and brought together over 600 experts from 25 countries with the same aim: to find formulas that would enable ceramics to gain competitiveness against other industrial coverings.
This 2008 meeting has undoubtedly been a special QUALICER event, since it has meant the celebration of the 10th anniversary of QUALICER. Invited lectures, communications, panel debates, posters, press conferences, hundreds of delegates, the media … ingredients of a QUALICER event that in February wished to celebrate 19 years of life. In order to gather the vast wealth of knowledge that has materialised at 10 QUALICER meetings, all the communications delivered in the course of these years have been put on a DVD.
On Wednesday, 13 February, the 2010 QUALICER meeting was convened. The QUALICER Organising Committee and all those collaborating now have two years ahead of them to prepare this event, whose characteristics have made it singular, as the sole global forum in which the reality of ceramic tile is approached from different angles.
“We at the College of Industrial Engineers and Castellón Chamber of Commerce are filled with great satisfaction by the increasingly international dimension and growing participation of the congress” remarked the Co-presidents during the closing ceremony, while they noted that “particularly to be highlighted are the great number of participants at each of the foregoing QUALICER events, totalling more than 5,500 attendees in the course of the years“.
On this occasion, four insightful panel debates have furnished unforgettable moments and great contributions for the sector.
On the first day the Australian scientist Richard Bowman, well-acquainted with QUALICER, provided, together with his illustrious panel colleagues, a highly enlightening retrospective, demonstrating that there are still challenges to be overcome in the ceramic industry, such as quality training for tile fixers.
The panel directed by Mila Paya and José Castellano served to determine future lines of action, which may entail innovation for the industrial ceramic tile sector, taking into account three types of innovation: aesthetic innovation, technical innovation, and marketing innovation.
On the second day of QUALICER 2008, the panel debate chaired by Javier Portolés highlighted the extremely creative moment currently materialising in the habitat world. The attendees were able to participate directly in ‘breaking up’ the paradigm, through the ingenious contributions of the inventor Pep Torres, urging the audience to break up (in the most literal sense of the word) a tile that represented a mould.
And finally, there was a panel debate directed by the North American expert Scott Carothers, which analysed the North American ceramic tile market, a market with a great potential and future.
In regard to the invited lectures, these were certainly brilliant and highly constructive. The first day saw the masterful lecture of Alfredo González, President of the Spanish Association of Frit, Glaze, and Ceramic Colour Manufacturers (ANFECC) on internationalisation as a competitive advantage.
Particularly to be noted was the presentation by the engineer Rajesh Nath on the Indian market and the vast possibilities it offers the ceramic sector. Nath furnished the keys to the economy of this Asian power that is growing at an annual rate of 6%, and in the near future is expected to become the world’s fourth-largest economic power.
On Tuesday, Domingo García Marzá, professor at Universitat Jaume I and expert on Social Responsibility issues, laid out his vision of the new context in which companies move at the present time, in which factors such as credibility and reputation become indispensable elements for building confidence.
Patti Fasan, the prestigious Canadian consultant, provided delegates with the opportunity to attend one of those lectures that leave an indelible mark, demonstrating her matchless command of oratory and spiritedness. She set out the current standing of competitive products, analysing the place of ceramics in this context, and put forward a number of constructive approaches to raise the market share of ceramics in the floor and wall coverings sector.
The last of the QUALICER 2008 invited lectures, chaired by Bruno Broseta, Director General of Industry, and delivered by Javier Mira and Gonzalo Silva of the Instituto de Tecnología Cerámica of Castellón, provided an interesting review of innovations that became milestones and have led to a new way of understanding ceramics.
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