It all started years ago when BEYSAD Board of Directors visited IFA… After our first participation as visitors, we were so impressed by the technological innovations that were exhibited that we could not ascribe BEYSAD, which is composed of suppliers, to there. We kept on participating as visitors for a few more years and after our last participation last year, with the impressions gained at the Ur-Ge project visit and the decision taken by the Board of Directors afterwards, works were initiated. In fact, the important thing in this fair was, rather than gaining new customers, seeing the innovations in our sector and technology, which countries made these innovations and how, looking into the infrastructures of these countries, thinking how we can update ourselves and improving with this vision.

We set off with these ideas in mind and starting holding meetings, doing researches and meeting with authorities… When we reached a certain point, the Union of Electric, Electronic and Service Exporters (TET), one of our prominent partners, agreed to be our host with its authority to organize a national participation event and we together realized a difficult, but successful event.

In this process, we would like to thank firstly the TET Board of Directors and employees, BEYSAD Board members who supported us and Mr. Atilla Eren and Mr. Besim Oktayer who are members of TET Board of Directors and BEYSAD Board of Auditors and who put a great effort. We think that this fair has served its purpose.  We came back from the fair with happy faces. We enjoy sharing our experiences with you. Hope to see you in other fruitful fairs…

Berlin International Consumer Electronics Fair (IFA), one of the world’s greatest technology events, was held on September 4-9, 2015 exhibiting the latest innovations in the sector. IFA, which hosts innovative products and brands in the consumer electronics and white appliances sectors every year, was organized for the 56^th time this year. The event is considered to have attracted approximately 240 thousand participants and 1645 companies from more than 100 countries exhibited their state-of-the-art products and services on an area that equals to the size of 21 football fields.In the fair, a number of innovative products including wearable technological products firstly including smart watches, smart home technologies, new-generation TV sets and mobile phones attracted a great deal of attention, energy-efficient and environment-friendly white appliances stood out and innovative consumer electronics took an important place.

Besides 25 individual Turkish companies, 20 Turkish companies including TET (Union of Electrical Electronic and Service Exporters), 19 BEYSAD members and 1 company that is operated in the small home appliances sector exhibited their products in the component section, Hall 27 with their sleek one-group stands of 368 m². The turquoise-white stand with the motto “Discover the potential” started to attract attention from the very first day.

Mr. H. Avni Karslıoğlu, Germany Ambassador of Turkey, and Mr. Ahmet Başar Şen, Consul General of Berlin, with their teams hosted by TET President Mr. Fatih Kemal Ebiçlioğlu visited Turkey’s national participation stand on September 4, the first day of the fair. The authorities talked to all the participants one by one, listened to them, drank Turkish coffee and left the stand.

The first guests on September 6 were Mr. Oğuzhan Öztürk, Deputy General Manager of Arçelik and Mr. Emin Bulak, Arçelik Purchasing Director. The authorities had a conversation with the participants.

The second significant group of guests on the same day was Mr. Rahmi Koç, Honorary Chairperson of the Board of Koç Holding; Mr. Levent Çakıroğlu, CEO of Koç Holding; Mr. Hakan Bulgurlu, General Manager of Arçelik and senior executives. The guests were accompanied by Mr. Fatih Ebiçlioğlu, Chairperson of the Board of TET and Group Head of Durable Consumer Goods of Koç Holding and Mr. Atilla Eren and Mr. Mehmet Kavaklıoğlu, TET Board members on the stand. The guests took a close interest in all the participants.

Another very important group of guests was Mr. Ahmet Kaya, Chairperson of Board of Termikel; Mr. Mustafa Kaya, Member of Board of Directors; and other young Board members. They visited all the stands and conversed with the participants.

Senior executives from Vestel were among the esteemed guests of ours: Mr. Nedim Sezer and Mr. İhsan Alkım, Executive Committee Members of Vestel; Mr. Erdal Haspolat, General Manager of Vestel White Appliances; and authorities from Vestel White Appliances, Washing Machines and Dishwashers...

We had another surprise in the second half of the same day: Mr. Ahmet Nazif Zorlu, Chairperson of the Board of Zorlu Holding and Mr. Ömer Yüngül, CEO of Zorlu Holding visited the national participation stand with a big committee and spent a long time at the stand with all their sincerity visiting every participant one by one and drinking coffee and chatting in the common area.

Moreover, Mr. Kemal Özgür, Purchasing Director of Vestel; Ms. Gonca Eti, Purchasing Group Manager of Vestel; Mr. Fikri Özdemir and Mr. Oğuz Altun from Arçelik; executives from UL and VDE; and Mr. Halil Turan, R&D Director of Vestel also visited the stand.   

A reception was held at the stand on September 7 at 05.00 PM. The reception was attended by local and foreign main industry authorities as well as authorities from the Embassy, Consulate General and Attaché’s Office, NGOs located in Berlin and authorities from the Turkish-German Businessmen Society.

IFA Fair from the eyes of the authorities…

Fatih Kemal Ebiçlioğlu,Chairperson of the Board of the Union of Electrical Electronic and Service Exporters (TET), stated that IFA Fair has a special place in the electrical electronic sector and added: “Involvement in this fair, which exhibits the latest innovations and is looked forward to by the whole world, brings prestige to Turkey, the top white appliances manufacturer in Europe. IFA Fair is a big meeting that is waited by big global brands with breath that is bated in order to display their innovations. It is a very important opportunity for us to see the current situation in technology. Many Turkish companies that compete with global brands such as Beko and Vestel participated in the fair individually and make great contributions in the image of the country and the sector.”

Mr. Ebiçlioğlupointed out that the majority of the companies that are participants in the Turkish pavilion are manufacturers of intermediate goods and components in the consumer electronics and white appliances and said: “Intermediate goods manufacturers play an important role in the development of finished goods technologies. We believe that our intermediate goods manufacturers will attract attention from finished goods manufacturers with their innovative products at the fair.”

Atilla Eren, Member of Board of Directors of the Union of Electrical Electronic and Service Exporters and Member of BEYSAD Board of Auditors, commented on the fair:“This year, the Union of Electrical Electronic and Service Exporters (TET) held a national participation in the IFA Technology Fair for the first time. Besides the individual Turkish companies, 20 Turkish companies from the white appliances and sub-industry sectors represented our country at this fair in the scope of national participation.

The national participation that was realized in the IFA Fair where the latest innovations in technology are shared was very beneficial for the sector. Our participants that were comprised of companies that produce intermediate goods for the consumer electronics and white appliances sectors had the chance to meet and cooperate with the brands that produce end products.

We participated in the IFA Fair this year for the first time and we believe it was successful, and we as the Union of Electrical Electronic and Service Exporters (TET) plan to attend again.

We would like to thank the Association of White Appliances Sub-Industrialists (BEYSAD) who played an important part to enable the successful national participation in the fair.”

Burak Özaydemir, Vice Chairperson of the Association of White Appliances Sub-Industrialists (BEYSAD): “In our previous visits, we anticipated that it was important that the Turkish sub-industry be represented in the IFA, since it was becoming the main fair of the white appliances sector. Our purpose was to point out the potential of the Turkish sub-industry in Europe and support our members in their efforts to seek new markets / customers. Considering that participating in the fair was a right step towards fulfilling this purpose, we aim to ensure continuity in participation in the future. We would like to thank the authorities of TET who enabled us to take part in the fair and all the participating members.”

The conclusion we can draw from our meetings as BEYSAD is that the fair was highly prestigious and also very dynamic and pleasant for our stand. Since the objective was not to gain new customers and it seemed that the customer potential was low, the actual expectation was to represent Turkey and especially not to be left alone in the first national participation by Turkey’s top level authorities. As already stated by the authorities of BEYSAD and TET, we have designed our working plans to realize a more crowded participation under better circumstances and to do a better fair in the next year. The prevailing idea is to work on a stand or poster with more emphasis on TURKEY with our main industries.

On this opportunity, we would like to thank TET management for their national participation organization, BEYSAD for hosting, the member companies for their participation and all our esteemed visitors for not leaving us alone.