The Nova Paint Club, which has 11 member companies operating in more than 80 countries, held a meeting of its board and technical directors in Madrid October 19-25, as the group enters its 31st year. The meeting was hosted by Barnices Valentine, part of the CIN Group.

The focus of the event was preparing the coatings industry for the future, as delegates heard from Hubertus Amann, president of sirius-net, who explored “big data, analytics and why people matter." Dr Carina Alles of Dupont then chaired a forum on sustainability in industry, with particular reference to the coatings sector.

These themes were discussed in more detail in the technical meeting, chaired by the new chairman Joao Machado of CIN Group. As well as looking at future cooperation and reviewing recent achievements , the technical directors discussed sustainability in the context of function and performance. External invited specialists also presented to the group in a meeting which generated many new ideas for delegates from across the globe.

The board meeting gave Nova members the chance to share their thinking on issues such as benchmarking and more general trends in the global coatings market. They also heard keynote presentations from Marten van der Meer of Orr & Boss. At the meeting, delegates were delighted to confirm the appointment of Amit Syngle, Asian Paints’ president of sales, marketing and technology as the chairman of Nova’s marketing committee.

Michael Dayan, Nova president and CEO of Israeli paint company Tambour thanked Barnices Valentine for hosting the event and said: “Once again we have shown how the Nova Paint Club provides tangible benefits to its members in a fast-moving global environment. By working together in this way, we can all feel better prepared and more confident as we look to the future.”

The next board meeting of the Nova Paint Club will be hosted by Tambour Ltd. in Tel Aviv in April 2014. It will be held alongside a meeting of Nova's marketing directors.