Budapest 2007

THE INTERCONTINENTAL HOTEL, BUDAPEST

IFEAT’s international conference for 2007 was held on 23-27 September at the InterContinental Hotel, Budapest, Hungary.

Marking exactly 30 years since the Federation’s inception in 1977, the conference was a massive success with a very impressive 590 delegates and 86 Accompanying persons registered, which is a record numbers of attendees all brought together to enjoy the conference and its social events in the beautiful city of Budapest.

The programme began as usual with the Welcome Reception held in the InterContinental Hotel on Sunday 23 September. This is always a great start to the proceedings giving everybody their first opportunity to catch up on old acquaintances as well as making some new ones. The constant hum of conversation was interrupted briefly to allow the guests to witness some typical Hungarian dancing by the Palotas.

The lecture programme kicked off on Monday morning with the Conference Chairman Michael Boudjouk formally opening the proceedings and welcoming the guests to Budapest. Monday’s lectures concentrated on Global Developments in the Aroma Chemicals Industry with the entire afternoon session being devoted to REACH and its implications. The session concluded with a very well attended panel discussion.

Tuesday morning’s lecture programme commenced with the same Global Developments theme with the second session of the day being devoted to IFEAT Business. This incorporated the Annual General Meeting and reports on the Education at both Plymouth and Reading Universities. This was followed by an enjoyable and in depth report on the 2007 IFEAT Study Tour to Egypt given by Ian McLean who was one of the participants of the tour. This was followed by the IFEAT Medal lecture given by Éva Németh on behalf of Professor Jeno Bernáth who regretfully was not able to attend. She happily accepted the medal presented on behalf of the Professor. A Best Student medal was also presented to Neil Wiltshire who was awarded the highest on the Diploma in Perfumery course from Plymouth University. The session concluded with presentations to Katrina Neale as she reached the end of her Executive Committee Chairmanship and to Michael Boudjouk as he reached the end of his term of service to the Executive. The theme of Global Developments in the Aroma Chemicals Industry continued on Tuesday afternoon.

Tuesday night’s IFEAT Dinner gave those IFEAT Members and their guests with tickets the opportunity to see some of Budapest’s well documented sites – from the river! Guests were lead by a brass band and welcomed on board the river vessel which took them along the Danube to Ladik Csarda, the venue for the dinner. An impressive fireworks display greeted the guests on arrival, arranged in celebration of IFEAT’s 30th Anniversary, they were then seated for an evening of food, wine and folklore entertainment.

Wednesday was field trip day for the delegates which this year took in the distillery and plantation facilities for fennel and hyssop owned by Silvestris and Szilas. The company is headed by Csaba and Judit Fodor who were also instrumental in many of the conference arrangements as the Local Organising Committee. Delegates also visited Lazar Tanya for lunch with the added entertainment of a memorable horseshow. Well done to those brave enough to join in!

The 2007 conference was definitely a successful event, totally in keeping with the sense of occasion in this, IFEAT’s 30th Anniversary year!