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HSM organises Fourth Partner Conference in Athens

The beautifully designed, excellent 5-star hotel Anthenaeum Intercontinental Athens in Athens, Greece was the venue. Athens was shortlisted as a possible venue for the 4th HSM partner conference for several reasons. Its location is central and many airlines fly directly to its airport, and we have been working successfully with the local HSM importers for many years. This proved to be a good decision, as the companies invited turned up in numbers to the third HSM dealers’ conference.

The conference was opened in the evening of 14th November with a welcoming speech by Irene Dengler (Managing Director Corporate Companies), cocktails and a dinner buffet. Here, the first opportunity to exchange experiences in a pleasant atmosphere was taken by the participants in a lively way.

The conference also hosted a benefit for a Greek school that was damaged by the forest fires in the summer. Each participant was invited to write his or her own personal philosophy of life on a banner and make a small donation. The participants then chose their favourite philosophy of life. The prize for the best life philosophy is a weekend in Greece for two people; the winner will then hand over the donation, which HSM has topped up lavishly.

After the welcoming speech by Hermann Schwelling (Chief Executive of the company), on the second day of the conference, Dietmar Dengler (Managing Director Global Sales and Marketing) and Irene Dengler informed about the status quo and the latest developments of HSM.

Then, Karlheinz Haigis, HSM’s Head of Global Key Account Management, presented “International Distribution Channels & Global Key Accounts”, and Bob Ouellette, Vice President of HSM of America, presented “The 5 Steps to Success”. After these presentations on the strategic subject of office technology, the morning was rounded off with up-to-date presentations by HSM on environmental technology. Christof Bader, Head of Sales International Markets, and Stefan Schraff, Head of Marketing, held a presentation on the newest products, how they are positioned in the market and on HSM’s marketing strategies.

One interesting item during the conference was a presentation by our partners Herrco (Greece) and VarmaPartner (Estonia). Both presented their success stories and market cultivation strategies.

Before the workshops began, Stefan Schraff presented some more news about office technology and then prepared the participants for the next presentation, where two employees of EDT introduced a new product sold by HSM, the “Digital Shredder – Maximum Security for Digital Data”. The portable Digital Shredder erases data from the hard drive quickly, easily and securely.

The workshops in the afternoon were used in an extremely constructive way to review a variety of issues and, for example, to highlight HSM’s success factors and market development strategy and make corresponding assessments and propose solutions.

The evening event was headlined as “Spirit, Ideas & Magic Moments”. The mentalist ER!K provided a spell-binding show and captivated the audience with his astounding tricks.

The start of third day of the conference was as magical as the end of the second day. Eric Grösche, the mentalist who enchanted the participants of the conference the evening before, held the presentation “Reach your Goals through Visualizing”.

Afterwards Irene und Dietmar Dengler presented awards to the happy winners of the HSM “Dealer of the Year Ceremony”. The sales awards are presented annually at the partner conference for four different regions in five categories each.

During the conference there were many opportunities for conversations with sales directors and managing directors from HSM. This resulted in very constructive discussions among participants and established the conference as an important platform for exchanging information on international sales activities. Stefan Schraff (Head of Marketing) and his team had prepared an interesting and varied programme which, in addition to the presentation of issues concerning HSM, also provided essential market information in a relaxed atmosphere.

The participants and the HSM management team were completely unanimous on the final day in that the HSM partner conference “EUROPE 2007” was a complete success. Both participants and organisers were able to go home with many positive new ideas and memories.