Dear colleagues,

I am just back from Rotterdam, from this year’s Global Congress. What a week this has been!

You will find updates and brief summaries throughout this edition of UFI Info, so I will not summarise the sessions, decision, or discussions here.

What I want to share is the fact that, in the end, and despite all pandemic challenges and complications, we were a 350 people strong UFI community coming together face-to-face at the Ahoy Convention Centre, and that we indeed all felt the power and energy of being together again.

Rarely in recent years has a Congress theme matched the sense and spirit of an UFI event this well as “Together Again” did this year. We indeed came together again, we discussed together again – laughed together again. We shared experiences and observations, learnings and strategies. We mourned the colleagues we have lost to the pandemic, and we celebrated those who showed leadership and innovation, winning the UFI Awards this year.

This all shows to me the importance of the event that we at UFI organise for you, our members. Facilitating exchange and networking has always been a pillar of UFI’s work, and we all felt the value of this with new intensity and vigor in Rotterdam.

I said repeatedly during the Congress that my favourite slide to share during our General Assembly was the one listing UFI’s upcoming face to face events. We will head into 2022 with a calendar that lists quite a few already – taking us to Hamburg, Macao, Poznan, as well as to Singapore and – for the 89th Global Congress, to Muscat, Oman, all of this pending pandemic development still, of course. And for 2023, UFI has selected Las Vegas, USA, as host for the 90th Global Congress. We could not be more excited.

Please join me in acknowledging each and every one from the UFI team around the world for the immense work and commitment they have put into bringing us all back #togetheragain as an industry. It truly is an honour to lead and work with this group of amazing people!

Kind regards,

Kai Hattendorf, CEO & Managing Director