ECIA President Brief April 2022

Dear colleagues,

Unfortunately, the last two turbulent years have marked my presidency where we are, with difficulty getting out of a world pandemic, and today we are even facing a war on our doorstep, after the aggressive attack on a sovereign nation, Ukraine that the whole ECIA community strongly condemns!

Although this, we need to stay positive and so I would like to convey to you the great news that our final agreement for the funding by the Creative Europe program, on which we have been working on from 2020, was taken together in our extra General Assembly in March and beginning of April , the board finalized the last issues on time.

We are proud and happy that the European Commission are willing to support our organization, not only for the financial support on the next three years, but because it also shows that our profession is an important economic factor in Europe, which it is worth to invest on !

The aim of the ECIA-BCSP (Building Connections for a Stronger Profession) project is based on two main basic objectives:

professionalize the organization ECIA and increase recognition and strengthen the profession.

This issues has been a goal of the of ECIA since the establishment in 1992, year of its foundation, and now we have a new strength and opportunity to move on to the next level together.

The structure of the project are defined also the different sub-projects:

• Spider Models Research

• Growing the network

• Exchanging knowledge

• ECIA Interior Award

• Promoting the ECIA Charter

• Representing the network

all opportunities that leads me to ask you to bring all your enthusiasm and passion into the projects by actively participating in their development and growth ... together we can achieve great goals and become an example for the whole Europe !!

I also want to take the opportunity to announce our next ECIA General Assembly 2022:
This will take place in Italy, Florence 23 to 25th of September (save the date) and in the hope that all the ongoing difficulties (pandemic-war) can be solved , it will be carried out in presence and hybrid mode, to allow everyone, and I want underline “everyone “ of all ECIA members who can participate to celebrate together the 30th anniversary of our association 1992-2022!

The event organized by our Italian member AIPI is in an advanced stage of organization and will include, in addition to our general assembly, the participation of the leaders of IFI World and International members , historical friends of ECIA , and a series of cultural initiatives included in our ECIA BCSP project such as meetings and round tables that will be communicated to you shortly together with the complete programs.

Wish all the best and..stay tuned!

Martin Thörnblom