Led by chairman Pol Maertens of Maertens International in Belgium, the Convention discussed issues such as the New Membership profile, Finance, Marketing projects and the ICEFAT Website.

Membership
On request of the Steering Committee, the Sub-committee Membership reviewed the application procedure and their proposals for the admission of new members, as well as amendments to the Articles of Association, were amply discussed in the meetings. The incorporation of the Membership Profile, as an important tool to judge an application, together with recommendations from three ICEFAT Members and an e-mail questionnaire to the membership should be a good basis for the acceptance or rejection of companies applying for membership.

Finance and marketing
Further to the results of the 2002 Convention in Lima, the Sub-committee Finance have established Policy Guidelines for the Payment Behavior between ICEFAT Members, which were approved by the Membership to be included in the ICEFAT Rules and Regulations. With new members, this Sub-committee will continue to develop other interesting projects for the benefit of the Members.

Stefan Fors, from MTAB in Sweden, highlighted the motivation to start actively marketing the ICEFAT brand.

"In the past year we have designed the new logo and graphic guidelines are available on the website for members," he said. "We have designed a new website which has proved to be a useful source of information for clients and members. Two issues of the Newsletter were produced, and positively received by both members and clients. A brochure and postcard were handed out in Portland last May, at the AAM, where we were represented with a fantastic booth for the first time in ICEFAT history."

The positive response from our Clients to these initiatives and the unanimous acceptance by the Membership of the ambitious plans for 2004 prove that ICEFAT is on the right track

Steering Committee
In the Annual General Meeting, the Convention elected two new members to the Steering Committee: Oliver Howell from Gander & White Shipping, London, and Sean O'Malley from US Art Company, New York., to succeed Pol Maertens and Bill O'Connor, who resigned from the Committee.

With the announcement that the 28th ICEFAT Convention will be held in Barcelona in 2004, from September 30-October 4, the Chairman closed this successful and enjoyable Helsinki Convention.