ADI Summ!t Virtual Xperience
Following a tradition of several online webinars since the beginning of the pandemic, on April 12 -13 2021 Autodistribution International (ADI) hosted more than 220 participants during the ADI Summit VirtualXperience, online edition of the annual ADI Summit.
Attending this online edition from their (home-)offices across Europe were CEO’s and top managers of ADI’s contract suppliers and ADI Partners representing 49 countries in Europe, Central Asia, -Northern Africa and – through its global organization 1Parts - the US, Canada, Mexico, Puerto Rico and Panama.
The Summit is ADI’s annual top event that strengthens co-operation between leaderships of both trade and industry in the automotive aftermarket. Forced by the circumstances that still prohibit travelling, participants connected to a purpose-built online portal facilitating one-on-one networking encounters, a keynote by Todd Campau (IHS Markit) giving insights on the development of the automotive market and more than 400 productive and fruitful meetings between ADI Partners and Contract Suppliers.
During the plenary conclusion on Tuesday that was attended online by the full 220 strong audience, ADI President Stéphane Antiglio proclaimed two Award winners :
Gennady Korolkov (President of AD Russia and General Director of AD Moskvorechie, Moscow) received the Award for “Aftermarket Professional of the Year 2021”, a once-in-a-lifetime prize assigned by the Summit audience weeks before the events, for exceptional merits in the automotive aftermarket and in the AD organizations. His prize is a work of art by the French sculptor Cécile Thonus.
ADI contract supplier BOSCH received the “Supplier of the Year 2020” Award in recognition and appreciation of Bosch’ efforts in supporting the ADI Partners during the extremely challenging pandemic year 2020. After having received the prestigeous award (virtually) from the hands of the ADI President, Günter Weber (Regional President AA Europe & ME) on behalf of the entire Bosch organisation and a strong Bosch team present on-line, thanked the ADI partners for their strong and resilient partnership during 2020. The trophy for Supplier of the Year traditionally is an artwork by the Belgian artist Willy Peeters. It is called “Framework” and represents the dynamic environment (“framework”) in which we operate: the aftermarket.
The final plenary session was marked by a ceremony announcing a change in the management at ADI: after 47 years of recognised leadership, ADI Managing Director Omer Wesemael “passed the baton” to Manuel Van Royen as the new Managing Director of ADI. Manuel himself looks back on 34 years in the company as Marketing Director, and will now be succeeded by Petra Vanfroyenhoven as the new Marketing Director.
As a token of appreciation and recognition for his impressive career at the service of AD International, the ADI President Stéphane Antiglio, who had been attending the event online until then, suddenly appeared as a surprise live in the studio to hand over to Omer Wesemael the lifetime ADchievement trophy called “Full-life” (by Willy Peeters).
