The Vicenza manager completed his term as AICC national president with the IULTCS 2022 Eurocongress in Vicenza, but remains on the national board of directors. “A very challenging but interesting and rewarding experience.”
There could not have been a better closing for Roberto Mariano Mecenero, the Vicenza manager of Arzignano’s Dani Tannery (a group of which he has now been a member for a couple of decades), who ended his term as AICC (Italian Association of Leather Chemists) national president with the IULTCS 2022 Eurocongress, hosted at the Vicenza Fair from September 18 to 20.
The organization of the prestigious European event had Mecenero as one of the leaders along with the president Giancarlo Lovato of the event, who outlines a report in the adjacent interview. “In reality, my term in office as national president,” says Roberto Mariano Mecenero, who has a extensive experience, more than 45 years in the field, “was supposed to end after the 3 years stipulated by the statute, in February 2022, but given the assignment of the Eurocongress in Vicenza, it was decided by the AICC National Board of Directors to extend the term of office for another six months, until the conclusion of the important event. We ended on a positive note, because the event held in the Venetian city, by all accounts, was one of the best ever, also in regards to the number of attendees, a good 520. As a comparison, at the World Congress IULTCS, hosted in the fall of 2021 in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, there were 70 people in attendance, and at the previous World Congress in Dresden in 2019, there were 450 registered participants. It was a very challenging organization, also because we wished for and wanted all Italian tanning schools to be represented in Vicenza, not only the two schools from Arzignano, but also those from the districts of Santa Croce sull’Arno in Tuscany and Solofra in Campania. The students were asked for only 20 euros as an almost symbolic fee, for the rest the organization, in this case Unic and Unpac, bore all the costs of travel, hotels, dinners and various transfers, including the one to the Milan Fair to visit the Linea Pelle and Tanning Tech shows. In the end it was enormously satisfying that many compliments came from the students themselves.”
It is not yet known which European city will receive the baton from Vicenza. The 2024 edition of the Eurocongress has not been fixed, but in the end it may not be held since the World Congress IULTCS 2025, will be held on the Old Continent, in Lyon, France. There probably won’t even be a European in 2026 (again because of too close a proximity to Lyon), so the next Eurocongress may even be held in 2028. In the meantime, the IULTCS World Congress 2023, scheduled for mid-October in China’s Chengdu city, runs the danger of having only Chinese delegates in attendance, while for the many foreigners there might be difficulties in attending, given the continuing Covid situation, and webinar participation would be made possible. Something definite will probably be known in January. Could there be a World Congress IULTCS in Italy in the future? Here’s what Mecenero says: “As the AICC Board of Directors, we were thinking of applying for the 2025 World Congress but then, after an internal analysis, we gave up the project once we learned that France was applying. This was to avoid entering into competition with France, which has been waiting longer than us for the honour of organizing a World Congress and which represents one of the leading fashion countries in the world; moreover, the Italian tanning industry boasts intense working relationships with them. So we diverted our plans to the IULTCS Eurocongress and we were pleased that at the end of the event our French friends gave us the warmest and most sincere compliments on the organization, which was excellent in their own way. They have asked us for more precious advice in the coming two years, in addition to what we already gave them during our work in September.”
Elected to the AICC presidency to replace Mecenero (who will serve as an advisor to the new National Council, as is normally requested of departing presidents, to ensure continuity with the work done) is Tuscan researcher Franca Nuti, from the Santa Croce sull’Arno (Pisa) district. “Having started my presidential term in February 2019,” Mecenero assesses, “we can say that, between the health pandemic, the war in Ukraine, problems related to the procurement of raw materials and increases in energy costs, it has been three complicated years, not lucky, nor easy. But it was nevertheless” “an exceptional and invaluable experience, in which I put a lot of effort, but also received a lot of satisfaction, being able to engage with many important people, both Italian and foreign. And strengthening good relationships is essential in everyones life. We compensated for the usual seminars and conferences regarding updates and in-depth study of tanning issues, which normally took place in person, by replacing them with meetings via webinar. Still allowing us to share during the Covid period, and not interrupt our activity of diffusing technical-scientific culture among AICC members and with tannery high schools, to which we bring our experience and expertise, as well as our knowledge. Undoubtedly the main event, but also the most challenging of my term, was the Eurocongress in Vicenza, which took at least 2 years of diligent preparation work.”
“I remember with great pleasure,” concludes the manager from Vicenza, “the private audience we were generously granted by Pope Francis last January 29 in the Vatican City: it was a touching event also because for the first time our Association was received by the Holy Father: a fantastic and exciting event and experience, which will remain forever in the history of the AICC but above all in our hearts. Returning to the activities carried out in the three-year period, another great satisfaction is to have definitively launched the l’Its Green Leather Manager “Cosmo” in Arzignano, which certainly represents the most accredited Italian tanning school, supported by the Faculty of Chemistry of the University of Padua as well as half of the teachers who mainly come from the tanning industry of the Veneto District and almost all of them AICC members. It is a two-year course of 2,000 total hours of attendance that allows students to do part-time work in the mornings, with lectures taking place in classrooms or laboratories in the afternoons. In the latter part of each school year, there is a 400-hour internship in a company in the local leather supply chain, which gives practical substance to what was studied during the school year previously attended. This is a valuable approach to reinforcing the tanning culture, at the end of which the students immediately find the possibility of placement in the world of the supply chain.”
