It was a great pleasure for P92 to welcome over 75 guests for the IMA Europe meeting that took place in Budapest. We were host sponsor for the event. There was a twin theme to the event: 'Incentives & Rewards in Eastern Europe' and 'Motivation Technology – an Update’. The guests really enjoyed holding the event at our Hotel and Conference Centre - the lovingly restored Pronay Castle outside Budapest.

Executives involved in Incentives & Rewards from across Europe came to hear about Eastern Europe - a fast growing and successful economic area. Everyone enjoyed hearing about the political set-ups, and the relationships with Europe. Also it was great to hear about incentives being run in Eastern Europe.

There was an excellent session on technology changes, cloud computing and mobile apps which are changing the face of motivation technological solutions – delegates were pleased to be able to stay abreast of the changes in the underlying technologies and how this is affecting reward, recognition and loyalty in channel, corporate and consumer programmes.

The conference had exclusive use of the castle mansions and gardens, and there was a delicious conference dinner as part of proceedings following the main event. Many delegates were able to stay in the castle itself.

Dr Jozsef Molnar, Chairman, P92 Nearshore IT Solutions Group gave a warm welcome to delegates as did Jonathan Grey, President IMA Europe, and Chairman, Ovation Incentives. There were updates on the IMA event programme from Phil Mooney – Executive Director – IMA Europe, the London Incentive Awards by Wendy Carter, CEO Lavish Gift Card and Brian Dunne CEO Giftcard Consulting & Julie Leblan CEO Merit Incentives talked about the next event in Dubai.

Dmitry Tsivilev, Managing Director, Giftery, Moscow, Russia moderated the Eastern Europe presentations. We heard from Prof József Laszlovszky - Director of the Cultural Heritage Studies Program, Central European University about ‘Eastern Europe, the economy and the politics’ and then ‘Employee Engagement - an Eastern Europe Perspective’ from Denis Chalov, Co-Founder & CEO - Benefactory - Moscow. Dmitry stepped in to cover ‘Channel Incentive trends in Eastern Europe’ on behalf of Alexey Golovin, Co-Founder & CEO - iLP Agency - Russia.

Stoytcho Vlaykov, Managing Director, Cashwave, Sofia, Bulgaria moderated a panel on incentives in Eastern Europe with
Denis Chalov, Co-Founder & CEO - Benefactory - Moscow; Mina Kraicheva - iCard, Bulgaria; Adina Georgescu, Operations Manager - Create Direct, Romania and Jasroslav Husak, B2B Manager, Internet Mall Group, Prague.

The IMA 2019 Event Sponsor Greg Connell - Account Director - Procurement International - 2019 IMA Europe Events Sponsor covered 'Things to consider when including merchandise in your programmes’'

After refreshments the ‘Motivation Technology – an Update’ session started moderated by Andrew Wilmot, CEO, P92 Nearshore IT Solutions UK and Andrew gave a talk on ‘How are underlying technology trends effecting motivational technology solutions’. Ted Moyses Technical Architect - CR Worldwide - our 2019 Rewards Software Category Sponsor from Stratford-apon-Avon spoke about ‘Motivational technology solutions – custom build or buy a product?’. We had an excellent case study ‘Customer Lifecycle Management & CashBack for the Irish Post Office’ from Michael Fitzgerald - Excecutive Chairman, Allegiant Loyalty - Dublin

There was a panel discussion on 'How will new technologies impact future motivation solutions’ with Ted Moyses, Michael Fitzgerald, and Istvan Bagyura CTO of P92 and Clive Williams of PCS moderated by Andrew Wilmot.

The Chairman of P92 Dr Josef Molnar led a wine tasting in the castle cellars for the delegates followed by a drinks reception and conference dinner. Jonathan Grey gave an excellent after dinner speech which was proceeded by a toast in Hungarian led by Peter Szilagy of P92. There was dancing!

In the morning many delegates headed off but some stayed for a tour of the city.