By Drew Algase, CVS, FSAVE – Vice President – Global Affairs, SAVE International
The 6th European VE Conference was held in Budapest, Hungary on April 19-20, 2018 hosted by the Society of Hungarian Value Analysts (SHVA) at the Budapest Metropolitan University. It was also supported by SAVE International and Value for Europe (V4E), formerly the European Governing Board (EGB). Eighty delegates representing 17 countries participated in this very successful Conference. In addition to European representatives from Austria, Belgium, United Kingdom, France, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Netherlands, Romania, Switzerland, Serbia and Slovakia, there were several participants from the United States, Canada, Saudi Arabia, India and Japan.
Over the two days, 37 technical papers by 46 authors were presented. The subjects included successful case studies in construction, manufacturing and IT in both the private and public sectors. There were also presentations on the use of VM in project management, VM techniques and “Value Thinking”.
SAVE was represented by Drew Algase who brought greetings from the SAVE Board of Directors, shared the Certification Program updates in a keynote speech, and presented a paper on Value Enhancing Methods (VEMs). Past Presidents Jim Bolton and Bruce Lenzer also presented papers on VM Programs and Hybrid FAST, respectively. Mr. Lenzer also delivered a keynote speech about the Miles Value Foundation.
The Conference banquet and dinner programs offered a great networking opportunity with a beautiful view of Budapest on the Danube River at night.
Following the conference, a training day on Saturday was attended by 14 participants. Mr. Lenzer conducted the first half-day session on his experience with Hybrid FAST Diagramming, which adds a process steps to the standard Technical FAST diagram. Mr. Bolton conducted the second session on Function Analysis. This consisted of a hands-on competitive exercise using function definition and FAST diagrams, leading to idea generation in the creativity phase of the workshop, and included ‘how to develop and present a management report-out meeting.’
Congratulations to SHVA President Dr. Attila Varga, Vice President Istvan Tarjani and the officers and staff for a well-organized and successful conference.
To see the presentations and more photos from the conference, please visit the SHVA website at https://shva.hu/events/conference-2018.html.
Print 
PDF