Harveer Sahni(Weldon), Paolo Grasso and Vinesh Bhimani(Kimoha UAE) at Omet booth in Converflex |
Marco(Omet) releasing the book, "50 Years of Passion and Excellence" |
Omet did have the press day on the same afternoon. The official presentation of the monograph of OMET "50 Years of Passion and Excellence" took place at the Villa Cipressi in Varenna, Lecco. In the splendid setting of the villa and gardens built between the XV and XIX century, Antonio Bartesaghi, Managing Director of OMET and Marco Calcagni, Sales Director made presentations about the company. Local authorities and leaders of chamber of commerce and industry attended to support the Omet endeavours to excel in an otherwise distressing economic situation for the manufacturing companies. Chiara Mauri, Professor of Marketing at SDA Bocconi in Milan and author of the monograph, had the honour of closing the day's proceedings recalling the genesis of the book, the difficulty to enclose a huge amount of different materials in a limited number of pages and the incapacity to retain the force and the passion that would spread out at every turning point in OMET’s history.
The main celebrations were held the next day on 11th May 2013. 187 visitors from 27 different countries collected on the shopfloor of Omet’s main plant amongst a collection of state of art Omet presses.
Antonio Bartesaghi |
Antonio Bartesaghi, son of late Angelo Barthesaghi the founder of Omet, took the stage to initiate the celebrations. He spoke at length detailing the path and landmark events that marked the journey of Angelo over the years.
Mike Fairley |
Marco Calcagni, sales Director Omet spoke briefly and handed over the stage to the International Label Guru, Mike Fairley. Mike chronicled the history of print packaging and the evolution of it all over the advancing years.
Chip Tonkin of Clemson University South Carolina USA |
Chip Tonkin of Sonoco Institute of Packaging of Clemson University, South Carolina, with whom OMET has a long standing collaboration, spoke on the future of printing in areas other than traditional packaging and was the last speaker of the day.
After a demonstration on the new XFlex X6 equipped with offset sleeve groups, the first press in the world to allow an exceptionally quick job changeover having to replace the sleeve only at each new execution, the visitors were allowed to move around and see the various Omet presses running in the demo center and ask questions to Omet technicians. Once they were done at the Omet plant the guests were ready to relax, it was now time to party!
All the visitors and the hosts moved to picturesque Lecco harbor to continue on the most relaxed part of the day: a boat trip from Lecco to Bellagio with a sightseeing tour of the village, from Bellagio to Como.
With Paola Barthesaghi |
After the boat trip the guests were left at their respective hotels in Como for a change and reassemble for the Gala sit down Dinner at the beautiful Villa Olmo in Como.
Networking over cocktails preceded the dinner.
After networking the guests were seated on their tables for dinner with musical performance and a magic show.
Antonio Barthesaghi |
Bartesaghi and Calcagni family |
It was a nostalgic moment when all the Bartesaghi and Calcagni family was on stage along with their mother the wife of Angelo Bartesaghi.
Marco and Antonio receiving momentos |
Many a customer who came from long distances, brought with them mementos to express their gratitude to the Omet team. They came on stage to make presentations and express their pleasure at being partners with Omet.
Villa Carlotta |
Many of the guests left early next morning but a few like me who had a late evening flight, were taken for another interesting tour to Villa Carlotta and then for lunch before being dropped to the airport with fond memories of the event.
Written by Harveer Sahni, Managing Director, Weldon Celloplast Limited, New Delhi-110008 May 2013.