Only a fraction of the members attended the General Meeting.
D – Perhaps the hot temperatures over 30 degrees deterred many people from travelling to Bonn; but in any case, less than a quarter of the current 449 member companies were represented at the annual conference of the GWW (the German Promotional Products Association), held in Bonn on June 22–23, including its Ordinary General Meeting. The trade sector, in particular, was very sparsely represented.
The Managing Director, Ralf Samuel (l) stepped down from the “upper row”. Ralf Uwe Schneider will take over the role as sole Managing Director from July 1.
And that although the Board and the administrative office had significant news to share: Not only has the spring edition of the “GWW-Trend” event in 2027 been cancelled due to declining exhibitor and visitor numbers, the Managing Director, Ralf Samuel, also announced that he is stepping down from the executive management as of June 30, at his own request, and will henceforth carry out a secondary role. The co-Managing Director, Ralf Uwe Schneider, will take over sole responsibility for running the association as of July 1. For the first part of the conference, Samuel, who received a standing ovation, and the administrative team had organised a supporting programme comprising of lectures. Linus Böll (Troika) and Moritz Schülbe (Schülbe Promotion Service) subsequently provided insights into the active work and projects of the GWW Young Professionals. The customary section meetings followed – some of which were poorly attended – before the day was brought to a close with the traditional get-together.
The Chairman, Frank Jansen (r), gave an overview of the association’s work over the past months.
The Ordinary General Meeting the following day began with the annual report from the Board and the administrative office. Key areas of focus included collaboration with the scientific community – an area that Schneider noted the GWW is a “global leader” in – as well as political lobbying in Berlin. Regarding the latter, Jansen noted that progress is unfortunately slow, as securing appointments is difficult. The Board is therefore focusing, among other measures, on a position paper regarding tax law reform, jointly drawn up together with the Bundesverband Großhandel, Außenhandel & Dienstleistungen (BGA/Federation of German Wholesale, Foreign Trade and Services) and the Zentralverband der Werbewirtschaft (ZAW/German Advertising Federation), which was submitted at the end of May. The “Young Professionals” group is also supporting the campaign.
As usual networking played a key role, offering plenty of opportunities for informal business discussions. The business environment remains challenging, a fact confirmed by figures from the “Promotional Products Monitor 2026,” presented at the end of the conference by Dr. Markus Preißner from the market research institute, IFH Cologne. According to the data, the German industry generated a revenue of approximately €3.2 billion in 2025, representing a 5% decline compared to the previous year. //Till Barth
Photos: Till Barth, © WA Media
