Letters to the Editor

Welcome to this first edition of The EuRApean, a new and different relocation e-magazine.  I hope you enjoy it and find it both relevant and informative.

Since I first became involved with EuRA, helping to restructure the website and then helping to organise the Barcelona Conference of 1998, I have seen a huge change in both the association and the way the industry works.  Creative use of technology and the web have changed what an association can do for its members, beyond what was ever dreamed possible when the fledgling EuRA first started to send information bulletins by email.  Today we have access to web systems and publishing techniques, which enable us to exchange information in so many new ways.  So many in fact, that sometimes the pressure of communication becomes merely an annoyance, with Blackberries constantly vibrating with new mail alerts, inboxes crammed with more and more junk (just this week, on returning to the office on Monday, 875 new emails, of which 850 were the usual adverts for bank loans, viagra and weight loss pills) and ever increasing ways of being reached by phone, VOIP etc.

I would like to think that The EuRApean will be one communication vehicle that will not be deleted.  That this vehicle can be one that actually gets read, and which you will take some pleasure in being part of.

This is a vehicle for the industry – we need to know your views, your news, your hopes and fears.

As EuRA has grown so has the will to communicate within the industry.  Just ten years ago, relocation providers may have been suspicious of open channels of communication for fear of losing a competitive advantage or the exclusive ear of a client.  But as more and more providers are fighting to remain competitive in the face of reduced service fees, greater responsibility and ever increasing demand, so we need to talk. 

If the EuRA Conference in Budapest was anything to go by, the networks that relocation professionals now have access to are shining examples of good communication, strong friendships and a mutual goal; to be experts in what we do.

Please, use this tool – join in, write to us about anything – praise, complaints, airing issues with clients, staff, training, and so on – we want to hear from you!

Best wishes