Networking

On Thursday 22 May 2014, the OSV visited the La Trappe brewery. It is unbelievably difficult to plan activities that don’t clash with trade fairs or holidays, and that was the case with this trip too: our visit to La Trappe overlapped with the end of VIV Europe in Utrecht plus the last day of the MFC-Event in Rosmalen. I received numerous comments from OSV members who would have loved to join us on the company visit to La Trappe but couldn’t because they were exhibiting at one of those shows. How could I have dreamt of making such a mistake in the planning?

And then it’s a matter of making choices. So I did.

In the end, I decided to share their pain: I cancelled my registration for the trip to La Trappe and Klaas Dijkstra attended in my place (he enjoys the odd beer, so that was no problem!). Instead, I visited the MFC-Event. After all, 26 OSV/YFM members were there too, and I wanted to at least try to make up for my mistake!

I spoke to almost all of them (all but two – my apologies to them), so that took me some time. But it was very much appreciated that I was there with them, rather than enjoying a beer or two in Berkel-Enschot.

But above all, a new customer of mine was one of the winners of the MFC Innovation Trophy, and I was keen to be there. I’d like to take this opportunity to once more congratulate Akzo Nobel Functional Chemicals, who secured the prize in the meat category with all of the submitted products. Now you might well be thinking, ‘What does Akzo have to do with meat?’ See more about OneGrain®.

We recently held this year’s summer barbecue. It once again attracted a large group of participants and I always get a kick out of realising how much everyone is looking forward to it. And it was another great success!

In this final edition before the summer vacation period, I wish you all happy holidays and I’m looking forward to seeing/speaking to/mailing/hearing from you again in September.

Saskia Stender