On Friday, December 11, 2020, UAFM participants – furniture manufacturers, suppliers, retailers, designers, and consultants met at the final conference of the year to share their experiences and understand how to move forward to not only save their business but also scale it.

History has repeatedly shown us that success is always a victory over certain difficulties. This paradigm became the basis of the conference, in order to collect and transform difficulties into achievements. Once again, representatives of the furniture industry united under the auspices of UAFM and proved that together you can do amazing things. This is the name of the conference “Wonderful Twentieth”.

True business stories, the shared experience of defeats, and inspiration from victories. This, in short, and in more detail it was. 

The first part of our conference

was dedicated to real-life stories from the furniture industry that happened in 2020 and how the company found a way to overcome the problems.

Oksana Donska – Member of the Board of UAFM, Head of the Cluster Platform and Furniture of Ukraine Business Expo spoke on the topic “2020 – as a year of the breakthrough of the furniture industry on the world stage.”

Oksana spoke about how and why the exhibition was postponed to 2021, and how she strategically used this time to strengthen the export opportunities of its participants, participating in international online exhibitions with joint stands, attracting even more buyers from different countries, and promoting in every possible way of a future event in the international arena. Thanks to continuous work, we can be sure that the first and only international B2B exhibition will take place in April and will provide Ukrainian furniture manufacturers with even more opportunities for export.

The next speaker was Oleksandr Metelsky, PR director of BLEST. Oleksandr shared his own experience and told this year’s history of the company on the topic: “What should we thank for 2020? New opportunities or what used to be scary to take.

Nadiya Rodionova, Director of Living Wood Ukraine LLC (ADLER) and a member of the UAFM Audit Commission, spoke about how important it was to show yourself as a person in 2020 and inspired everyone to boldly conduct business to innovate and support each other.

 

The next speaker was a representative of retail, who came to us from Lviv. Serhiy Plandzhiev is the director of Development Zahid Group, the manager of the Try slony and Gora shopping malls. Serhiy talked about the life of furniture retail during 2020 and shared his plans to expand his business.

Not without a representative from the design industry. Dmytro Medyanyk – co-founder and director of the European Design School, designer-practitioner of author’s and functional interior design with 20 years of experience spoke about furniture design in 2020 and spoke about the importance of collaboration between designers and furniture makers.

The speeches of the first part ended, but the talks continued during the lunch break.

After resting, the guests returned to the conference hall.

The second part began, the speakers of which were the experts invited

The first speaker was Natalia Kadya – business humanist, neuroscientist, LVBS teacher, certified coach, author of articles and practical materials, a consultant on organizational development, leadership, and personnel management. Natalia spoke about why people should be at the center of the future, how to create and use the most important currency of our time – trust, and why businesses should choose the path of humanistic development.

Then the audience’s attention was captured by Olga Peretyatko – Lean Six Sigma consultant, Lean coach. Olga helps companies to optimize and adjust production and management processes. And at the conference, Olga told three wonderful Lean stories that took place in 2020 and used these examples to prove that change is not only a new opportunity but also a necessary component of success.

Next on the plan was to be Vitaliy Ivakhov, the “furniture guru” of UAFM, but 2020 is constantly making adjustments to our lives, Vitaliy could not be present, but recorded an inspiring video for all participants.

And the conference ended with a speech by Alexander Yushchenko, director of MIRT, on the topic: New challenges – new opportunities, or how collaboration will help the furniture company in 2021?

With his speech, Alexander gave everyone the key to opportunities, using which, we believe, it is here, in UAFM you can reach heights for your business.

UAFM’s Speed-dating

Not without the traditional at the events of UAFM Speed-dating, short meetings between furniture makers, suppliers, and designers. Each participant was given 90 seconds for the presentation, after which the pairs changed. In this way, you can quickly make new acquaintances aimed at cooperation. The main thing is to answer three questions: Who am I? What am I looking for? And what can I offer?

The event ended with a buffet in a warm circle of friendly conversations.

We are grateful to each participant and partner of the conference for a wonderful event, which was made possible by your experience, interest, and involvement not only in your own business but in the industry as a whole. We hope you were inspired by the conference and it will help you plan for 2021.

We sincerely thank our partners of the event, companies: Kronospan, AGT PLUS, ATON SERVICE, ViYar, KLEIBERIT for support, and active participation in the UAFM’s life.