After the celebration of the first Annual Convention of the European Water Jetting Industry last year in Cologne, EWJI organized its Annual Meeting 2017 on February 10th, 2017, in Madrid.
The aim of the meeting was to meet again the main professionals of this trade at European level in order to establish the road map for the industry’s future.
The EWJI Annual Convention 2017 was possible thanks to the support of the following exhibitor companies: PEINEMANN, REPROTEX, ROSTOR, SPIR STAR, and HUGHES PUMPS, with the collaboration of the Spanish associations AETAC and ASELIME, which have joined in a unique entity to meet all the Spanish industry with the name of ALTAP.
The day before of the conference sessions, some of the attendants enjoyed a fantastic informal dinner in one of the most representatives places in Madrid downtown.
Conference session 1
On Friday 10th, Mr. Bill Gaff, chairman of WJTA-IMCA Board of Directors, was the person in charge to open the conference sessions.
In his presentation, Mr. Gaff explained the water jetting industry in the USA, with a complete review of WJTA-IMCA history, highlighting its main achievements and milestones.
After him, Mr. Eduardo Martínez, Manager of the Spanish company HIDRODEM, spoke about the water jetting for construction and surface preparation in Spain, a topic he knows perfectly because he was one of the first professionals of this application in this country.
Before the first coffee break, where the attendants had the opportunity of visiting the exhibitors of the Annual Convention, Mr. Stuart Harwood, president of S3C, make a presentation about the industrial cleaning in France.
Conference session 2
After the break, it was the turn of Ms. Maria Celeste Simoes, from the Portuguese company UNDER PRESSURE, who explained the water jetting industry in this country, through her experience of many years at this company.
Mr. Hans Buitendijk, vice president of SIR, continued the second session of the conferences talking about the industrial cleaning in The Netherlands and Belgium.
Mr. Buitendijk makes a presentation of SIR focus on what it is, its goals, activities, and examinations, as well as the reasons why SIR participated in the EWJI Annual Convention 2017.
The last speaker of this session was Mr. Jesús García Argüelles, from the Spanish company EULEN, who spoke about the industrial cleaning in Spain.
Mr. García, was the day before of the event, chosen as new president of ALTAP, the Spanish association who will meet all the water jetting applications.
Conference session 3
After the lunch and the networking time, Mr. Francesco Menci Direction Hygiène Sécurité Environnement of TOTAL, explained the view and experiences of asset owners, while Mr. Bas Buhrmann, Rental and Sales Manager of DOORNBOS, presented the ideas EWJI has for the communication & marketing working group he leads.
Round table
After him, it was time to identify the next steps that EWJI has to make.
With the participation in the round table of all the speakers who made a presentation during the day, and moderated by the secretary general of EWJI, Mr. Jose Blanco, the attendants put on the table several ideas focus on the near future of EWJI.
To sum up, the professionals present at the EWJI Annual Convention 2017 agreed the European Water Jetting industry must be together in order to reach its objectives.
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