Being present: Record attendance at the 2023 VDWF Annual General Meeting
A record 220 participants – nearly half of the association’s 483 members – attended this year’s Annual General Meeting on April 28. Above all, this number proves the tool and mold industry’s interest in a joint exchange. This is unsurprising in view of the past few years’ series of crises.
“Complaining is immensely uniting – but it rarely gets us anywhere” said VDWF President Prof. Thomas Seul in his opening address. The COVID-19 pandemic and the war in Ukraine resulted in massive world changes with serious economic consequences and a shift in working models. This has meant an increasing number of hurdles for companies in this sector. But the mood during the annual general meeting was good, and Seul explained strategies, concrete measures, and assistance provided by the association to companies in the German-speaking region. The previous evening’s event at KrausMaffei’s new main plant in Parsdorf near Munich offered the perfect platform for professional networking in a refreshingly relaxed atmosphere. The plant tour at the mechanical engineering company attracted a lot of attention: its 250,000 m2 manufacturing space, insights into the production of injection molding machines, and systems for industrial 3D printing left a lasting impression.
Focus on current industry topics
With no new elections, the formal part of this year’s Annual General Meeting was short. This left even more room for an agenda that provided space for members and focused on current trends and challenges faced by the tool and mold industry. Among other things, these include the increasingly difficult recruitment of young talent. In the future, these young workers will be identified by Marc Metzner – the new VDWF Trainee Scout. This innovatively designed position is one of the association’s measures to counteract the shortage of skilled workers in the industry: The plan is to use targeted campaigns to build up the association’s internal trainee community in hopes that they will act as multipliers and inspire the next generation of tool and mold makers. There was also a focus on topics such as “sustainability” and “CO2-neutral production”. Successful steps taken by the association in the past year to raise awareness among politicians about status of the key “Tool and Mold Making” industry in Germany were also presented.
Applause for the association and its members
This year, the people who support the VDWF on a volunteer basis also took the stage and received a hearty round of applause. These included the heads of the ten working groups, whose commitment enables the association and its members to always be up to date on important topics. There was also applause for the President: members honored Prof. Thomas Seul with a standing ovation when Vice President Anton Schweiger congratulated him on receiving this year’s Dr. Richard Escales Award.
“Being present” – this is how the VDWF board formulated one of the association’s main tasks during the event. “Seeing how many people have come together today for the Annual General Meeting to live an active culture of meeting within our industry makes us proud,” concluded Schweiger about the successful event. The VDWF is starting this new business year with lots of motivation and energy. It has invited all industry players to take part in its diverse association events offered throughout the year in order to exchange ideas on a smaller scale.
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