The 32nd FEM Congress took place in Cannes from 18 to 20 September 2008, organised by the French National Committee of FEM, CISMA.
The opening ceremony followed by a dinner has been held on Thursday 18th September after a working afternoon for the FEM Product Groups, and the next morning was dedicated to the plenary meetings of the FEM Product Groups.
The highlight of this Congress was a “horizontal session” during the afternoon of Friday 19th September. It comprised 2 workshops followed by panel discussions.
The first workshop attempted to depict and identify economic opportunities offered by Eastern European countries and Russia.

• The economic situation in Eastern Europe and Russia, by Nicolas Bouzou, Astères
• Potential market Russia - Savoye’s experience, by Jean-Michel Guarnieri, Savoye (IS)
• Manufacturing in Eastern Europe: Why?, by Alexandre Saubot, Haulotte Group (MEWPS)
• List of participants
  

The second workshop took a more technical angle and tried to trigger discussions around CEN & ISO standards, FEM recommendations and their possible combined future.

• CEN & ISO standards, by Danielle Koplewicz, UNM
  • Global relevance from European standardization to ISO standards
  • WTO principles in the frame of global technical harmonisation
• “FEM Recommendations” - Role of FEM for European Manufacturer strategy in the (standardized) global market, by Arnaud Miton - Manitowoc Cranes
• List of participants

Finally the afternoon ended with a special guest who gave us another view on how to “reach the top” in your respective businesses: the French alpinist Catherine Destivelle.

The Congress ended with a closing dinner at the invitation of Pierre Marol, CISMA’s President, on the evening of Friday 19th September, and our traditional yet popular CEO breakfast, with a presentation by Denis Ferrand from Coe-Rexede on the World economic situation and economic forecast 2008-2009.
The General Assembly on Saturday 20th September concluded the 3-day Congress, and included an address by Adrian Harris, Secretary General of the European Engineering Industry Association (Orgalime) and an address by John Nofsinger, CEO of Material Handling Industry of America (MHIA).

We would like to thank all participants for joining this congress, and CISMA for this well organized and fruitful congress.

We look forward to seeing you in Istanbul from 29 Sept. to 3 Oct. 2010.