Thank You! CEPIC Congress Warsaw 2015

Dear all,

The 2015 Warsaw Congress is over and we may still be recovering from close to a week of intense business networking as well as key seminars and conferences. To all who have decided that visiting the capital of Poland was an interesting CEPIC proposition to explore, thank you very much for coming. I hope that you have finished the Congress with great business propositions and have gone away learning that the Center of the Picture Industry is doing so much for the existence of our ecosystem.

I must thank our industry, headed by six national associations of agencies, for having confidence in me once again to continue presiding over CEPIC, in our work in making legislators on an European level aware that images are an essential part for the development of culture and knowledge, not to mention its importance on the global Internet, as well as trying to defend our rights against piracy and dominant positions. I´ll do my best in this endeavour that I have just taken on.   

It has been my pleasure to see that the CEPIC Statutes have been finally modernized and consolidated in a well-written document which clearly defines the internal rules of CEPIC which we hope will allow it to carry out its main objectives and forthcoming challenges in a more efficient way.

I wish to mention the importance of the 1st CEPIC Stock Photography Awards that was initiated this year as an experiment which we will continue improving and consolidating as a manifestation of a kind of photography that has a personality of its own. It is more conceptual than journalistic and more imaginative than purely descriptive; it is not fine arts by definition but conveys innovation and fosters emotions and ideas, all of which the market can apply to itself to sell its products and services. Thanks for your great support and you can expect the best for the 2016 Awards.

If there was a company or person who doubted that coming to Warsaw was worthwhile, I would like to say that they have lost a great opportunity to enjoy Warsaw and what precious bit of the wonderful Polish culture, food and warmth we had experienced, as well as the best weather that any congress could have dreamt of.

Special thanks to all our partners and sponsors, to all the companies that have sent delegates, to the wonderful speakers who made the congress very informative and to the CEPIC team in Berlin for their essential work organizing the administration and logistics. Without them, this congress would not have been possible.

We will be delighted to see you again in our forthcoming 2016 CEPIC Congress which we will try to handled it in another venue and in another city that may bring you more business possibilities wrapped around culture and life delights.

Many thanks,

Alfonso Gutiérrez
CEPIC President