Giovanni Vitaloni is the new ANFAO and MIDO President

In this interview, he describes in detail the program for the next four years and presents his work team.What are the basic values that inspire your mandate? First of all, we will aim to continue with Cirillo Marcolin’s mandate (editor’s note: the outgoing president), drawing inspiration from four absolute values: transparency, engagement – both of the structure that works on the MIDO and ANFAO (Italian Optical Goods Manufacturers’ Association) operating system and the membership base – innovation – concerning above all communication and commercial activities – and, finally, the quality of the work we do.Who will be on your team?The new Presidential Board will consist of Paolo Pettazzoni, Renato Sopracolle, Lorraine Berton, Nicola Del Din (Vice President), Cirillo Marcolin (Past President). The new Vice Presidents will be assisted by delegates for special activities: Callisto Fedon for relations with Certottica, Enrico Tormen as the delegate for the Technical Commission, and Nadia Zampol with the delegation for internationalization.You spoke about “continuity” with the past president, whose lines of development and achievements you contributed to as Vice President. Can you please specify the goals you share?Over the past four years we have worked hard on transparency and engagement of our members: I would like to further emphasize these two aspects. The most important aspect is the introduction of two new work teams: the first is the “youth group”, dedicated to under-40 members,which means the children of businessmen or businessmen who created a start-up in recent years. The concept is promoted by Confindustria and we are committed to moving forward. The themes will be, for example, industry 4.0, digitalization, and the generational handover within businesses.The second will be the “sunglasses group”. Over recent years we have seen the birth of many new companies that have developed their core business around sunglasses and/or sunglasses lenses; for these enterprises, we will concentrate on different topics like, for example, distribution channels, e-commerce, technology innovation linked to the product, all-around technical requirements, and counterfeiting.Do you already have team leaders?Nicola Del Din is responsible for the creation and development of these two new groups. Then he will see as things move forward whether or not to designate two team leaders. Nicola is also the delegate for the DaTE. You come from a SME like many of the ANFAO member companies.Do you believe this represents an added value and contributed to your election?In my opinion, yes. I believe that it is right to change after having been steered by the head of a large company. Obviously, we will continue to advance on all the aspects linked to these latter issues, like union relations and aspects linked to the technical area, which is also the work carried out by Certottica. Small and mid-sized businesses are interested in different topics, like the commercial aspects and support in promotion, as well as the other new services.The internationalization process represents one of the fundamental elements and must be supported by the association.So institutional relations with ICE (Italian Trade Agency) will continue?Yes, with President Scannavini and his team, we are working on the program for the second semester of 2017/18, which has already been confirmed. In fall, we will hold two events: the workshop in Miami and the presence of the Italian collective at the fair in Hong Kong. The important pre-MIDO event with international buyers and the Eastern European and Asian events have been confirmed. We only need to identify the cities of reference.Which will be the first challenges to face?The first opportunity is the DaTE, of which we are a partner, set for the September 23-25 at the Leopolda in Florence. There is a lot at stake because it is an event that is growing considerably and with plenty of potential. Moreover, we have transferred the venue from Milan to Florence, a city that is the barycenter of the peninsula, and I hope that the new timeframe contributes to making it a point of reference for many Italian opticians seeking sources of inspiration.