World Perfumery Congress

World Perfumery Congress 2001, Cannes/Grasse, France

Thursday 31st May

THE LINK BETWEEN PERFUMERS, MARKETING AND CONSUMERS
Karyn Khoury, Senior Vice-President, Estee Lauder

Karyn showed us, with a clear, articulate talk illustrated with slides and videos, how Estee Lauder have grown, acquiring more and more companies - some we did not even know were owned by Estee Lauder. From their beginnings with Estee Lauder, Aramis, Clinique, Prescriptives, and now Jo Malone, Origins, Tommy Hilfigur and many others.

THE PRESENCE OF THE FUTURE IS TODAY
Lambert Courth, President and CEO, H&R

A forecast of perfumery in the future.

SHAPING EXPERIENCE: SCENT, LIFE AND COMMUNICATIONS
Henri Lustiger-Thaler PhD, Senior Vice-President, Aerome Scent Technologies

An interesting talk all about the technology used by Aerome, accompanied by videos that can also be seen on their exhibition stand. I fully expected the auditorium to be filled with an aroma for at least one of them, but I was slightly disappointed when that did not happen, and he suggested we visit their stand instead.

CREATING THE DIFFERENCE
Jean-Pierre Houri, President Fragrance Worldwide, Quest International

A good talk including an enchanting video of how Quest Perfumers become inspired. Several Quest Perfumers described how amazing they find it to create products and dreams, in the setting of a beach retreat with pebbles, sky, clouds, and water. Excellent!

CHIRALITY, A NEW DIMENSION IN PERFUMERY COMPOSITION
Frederic Mauger, Global Business Director, Rhodia

Quite interesting, for the chemists among us at least, discussion of chiral molecules and how their chirality determines their scent. Isolation of the different chiral compounds from a racemic mixture can produce a stronger concentration of the sometimes more interesting chiral isomer.

REGULATION, RESTRICTION AND CONFUSION
Glenn Roberts, Executive Director, the Fragrance Material Association

This talk might have been about legislation, but Glenn made it interesting and humourous. He pointed out that legislators and regulators are human beings, just trying to do their job, and regulators are at their happiest when producing regulations, just like we perfumers like to create perfumes! There is, apparently, no "expert" on the Perfume Industry within the European Parliament, or EU Committees, but likewise, we have no expert on regulations and politics within our industry. Glenn confessed he is a politician, but he understands both sides and he is trying to protect our interests and speak for us to get the best deal we can of the regulations. But the days when we can use whatever we like at the levels we like are gone forever. Basically, the politicians think that a self-regulating industry is a little like imposing a 30 miles per hour speed limit, because they think we will drive at 100 M.P.H. through it! So by use of labelling, they hope to improve things. But we need more communication - between the perfumery industry and the politicians, and more education - for the politicians and the public.

PERFUMERS! WHAT’S HAPPENING AND WHERE ARE WE GOING?
Jean-Francois Latty, President, JFL Creations / Consultant for Drom Fragrances International

A second lectern had appeared on the stage today, and now we found out why. Francis Thibaudeau was at one side of the stage, and Jean-Francois was at the other, for a question and answer session.

Visit To Grasse

For Thursday afternoon there was a choice of four Grasse perfumery factories to visit. Everyone was provided with a packed lunch before boarding their designated coach in front of the Palais des Festivals.

As we approached Grasse, the old perfumeries, Fragonard, Molinard and Galimard, were advertised on posters everywhere.

We had a few minutes to look around the "old town", where we visited Notre-Dame-du-Puy Cathedral. The scent of incense was really strong inside the Church - it was just olibanum and nothing else!

For our visit we went to the new Charabot factory, which was down in the valley - the brand new distillation and extraction equipment was very impressive.

Afterwards we visited a little farm on one of the surrounding hillsides. By this time, the heavens opened - we sheltered in an outbuilding, while the farmer, Mr. Biancalana, told us about the roses and other crops they grow here. There were several baskets of pink, scented roses - on one side were the Damask Rose, which were to be used for eau de rose, or rosewater, and on the other side was rosa centifolia, which was to be extracted to produce rose absolute. They also grow jasmine on the farm but that is harvested later in the year.

When the rain let up for a few minutes, we ventured out into the rose fields, which were now quite muddy, and saw the roses growing.

We also saw some fruit trees including a fig tree.

The next event of the day was cocktails and dinner in Grasse, held at the old Chiris factory - also known affectionately in the trade as "the monastery", and there were elaborately carved windows, with various pieces of distillation equipment dotted about.

There was a sea of rose blossoms at one end, and next to a small stage in the centre of the hall was a fountain with more blossoms floating on the water. A slide projector was showing slides of Provence, including lavender in bloom, lavender in winter covered in snow, and many other pictures of lavender, and a laser show specially for the WPC was being shown at the other end, with music.

The WPC Chairman, Jean-Pierre Subrenat appeared on stage accompanied by the Mayor of Grasse, for the prize-giving ceremony of the recent "International Lavender Competition". They announced the winners and runners-up, who came up onto the stage to receive their prizes.

Link to Next Day of WPC Journal

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	For Thursday afternoon there was a choice of four Grasse perfumery factories to visit. Everyone was provided with a packed lunch before boarding their designated coach in front of the Palais des Festivals.
	As we approached Grasse, the old perfumeries, Fragonard, Molinard and Galimard, were advertised on posters everywhere.
	We had a few minutes to look around the "old town", where we visited Notre-Dame-du-Puy Cathedral. The scent of incense was really strong inside the Church - it was just olibanum and nothing else!
	For our visit we went to the new Charabot factory, which was down in the valley - the brand new distillation and extraction equipment was very impressive.
	Afterwards we visited a little farm on one of the surrounding hillsides. By this time, the heavens opened - we sheltered in an outbuilding, while the farmer, Mr. Biancalana, told us about the roses and other crops they grow here. There were several baskets of pink, scented roses - on one side were the Damask Rose, which were to be used for eau de rose, or rosewater, and on the other side was rosa centifolia, which was to be extracted to produce rose absolute. They also grow jasmine on the farm but that is harvested later in the year.
	When the rain let up for a few minutes, we ventured out into the rose fields, which were now quite muddy, and saw the roses growing.
	We also saw some fruit trees including a fig tree.
	The next event of the day was cocktails and dinner in Grasse, held at the old Chiris factory - also known affectionately in the trade as "the monastery", and there were elaborately carved windows, with various pieces of distillation equipment dotted about.
	There was a sea of rose blossoms at one end, and next to a small stage in the centre of the hall was a fountain with more blossoms floating on the water. A slide projector was showing slides of Provence, including lavender in bloom, lavender in winter covered in snow, and many other pictures of lavender, and a laser show specially for the WPC was being shown at the other end, with music.
	The WPC Chairman, Jean-Pierre Subrenat appeared on stage accompanied by the Mayor of Grasse, for the prize-giving ceremony of the recent "International Lavender Competition". They announced the winners and runners-up, who came up onto the stage to receive their prizes.