Meetgeek.ai founders

After securing EUR 500,000 in fresh funding, Romanian startup Meetgeek.ai is looking to meet the growing demand from EU and US companies that want to streamline their meetings. BR spoke to the founding team—Iulian Gheorghe, Raluca Risnoveanu, and Dan Huru—about technology’s power to replace inefficient meetings and the skills Romanian startup founders need to expand abroad.

By Ovidiu Posirca

Left to right: Iulian Gheorghe, Raluca Risnoveanu and Dan Huru

What is the founding story of Meetgeek. ai and what were some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced so far?

In our previous software engineering roles, we were involved in many software projects that had the purpose of automating task execution. Over time, we noticed that while there was immense pressure on automating tasks, meetings were still inefficient, free to book, and very time-consuming for the business.

I once exported my calendar and counted the hours of meetings I had to attend in one year. I got two years of meetings! That’s why we decided to team up and do something about it.

Finding the right customer personas and shaping the product accordingly is the biggest challenge tech startups face, and this was the case for us, too. We talked to over 1,000+ potential customers and worked with many companies, in multiple iterations, to find the right mix. Another big challenge, due to our engineering background, was shifting from a product-first mindset to customer-focused thinking. Additionally, we had to quickly learn to say no and drastically prioritise what to focus on.

A couple of years later, we are excited to see that we are making a daily impact, freeing up calendars, and making meetings more efficient with Meetgeek.

What is the market potential for your platform and how is demand shaping up from a geographical perspective?

We are now available on all 3 major platforms, including Zoom, Google Meet, and Microsoft Teams, and we’re excited to see that we are

already impacting the daily activity of hundreds of businesses in the US and the EU.

We are seeing a very hungry market, which is ready to be educated and looking for solutions to streamline meetings. Demand is there and we need to be able to respond to it with the right team.

What kind of professionals are mostly interested in using Meetgeek.ai? And are you relying on their feedback for future developments?

Teams use Meetgeek for customer discovery calls or customer meetings and sharing customer feedback or requirements with the team. It is also deployed for high-quality conversations and getting peer feedback on hiring interviews as well as for coaching and onboarding staff. Important internal meetings are also supported by our platform.

Feedback loops are among the key ingredients we use to improve the platform. The team talks to customers daily. We are soon going to launch a community of super users so that our customers can partner with us in developing Meetgeek and identifying the best ways to use the technology.

How much have you invested in the startup so far and are you looking to expand your team?

With our first pre-seed round of EUR 150,000 in 2021, we made significant investments in product development and customer discovery, working closely with hundreds of companies using Meetgeek daily and speaking to many more in the process.

Going forward, we have no intention of slowing down. We are actively hiring digital marketers, business developers, customer success, and software engineers to further improve our platform, accelerate our growth, and achieve our vision to help businesses streamline their meetings.

How are companies using your product and which industries stand out in your portfolio?

Companies use Meetgeek to automatically capture highlights and insights from calls, grow sales revenue, and recruit better talent. Integrations with Slack, Google or Hubspot help teams redefine their meeting culture, improving productivity, knowledge sharing, and freeing up calendars.

We generally work with digital-friendly companies with a hybrid work culture or with distributed teams. The industry is not always a criterion, but we generally work better with less data-sensitive industries.

How will you use the EUR 500,000 in fresh funding?

We want to build the future of meetings, so this round unlocks our ability to advance our company and technology. The round is a follow-on from our previous investors and several new private investors. We are actively hiring to market the product in the US and EU markets and improve the technology.

What is the future of business meetings from your perspective? How will technolWhich parts of Romania’s startup ecosystem do you feel could be improved?

It is important that the ecosystem of angel investors & VCs continues to grow, enabling more founders to gain access to capital and start successful companies. Moreover, existing successful entrepreneurs should get more

involved in the ecosystem, to inspire the right mindset and work ethics among new founders. For example, we need to learn how to market and sell a product and how to become customer-oriented, in addition to what we are already doing well: building software. We believe this skill needs to be on the top of the agenda for local entrepreneurs and technical folks who want to build successful global businesses.

ogy continue to streamline this process?

Our long-term vision is to redefine the meeting culture across organisations. We’re seeing two major trends in this space, which we are capturing with our software.

First, we believe meetings will become a vital part of the company's automation pipeline. RPA or regular business workflows are already being triggered automatically or by using voice commands from within the meeting itself. Notes, tasks or meeting conclusions are being saved using the right tools and distributed to individuals automatically.

By using this type of software, companies will be able to define their meeting culture, apply their own style, and use it to attract new hires. Teams can already choose between a classic or a more transparent meeting culture, decide which meeting performance indicators to measure, what information is shared automatically, and much more.

We are now in a phase where this technology is proving useful in specific departments of various organisations. However, we envision a not-too-distant future where advanced meeting assistants are present in every meeting and are redefining the way we interact and exchange information.

Are you looking to secure new funding rounds in 2023?

We are looking to raise another round in mid2023 to scale up the business and become a dominant player on the market.

Minio Studio has launched Creative Chaos, a short “how it’s made” documentary that follows the stages of building an ad campaign, from briefing to evaluation. The project featured all parties involved in a campaign: the creative agency, the client, the media agency, the director, freelancers, and influencers.

By Romanita Oprea

Creative Chaos is the first project of its kind on the local market

The video documentary shows the workflow in its real form: a creative chaos with a lot of stress, often moving at a very fast pace, going through multiple feedback rounds, but also finding success, valuable collaborations, and plenty of knowhow. The narrative follows the campaign dynamic, showing individual worries and anxieties as well as professional knowledge about handling a large project, with many layers and plenty of people involved. The videos focus on Minio Studio’s internal workflow, but they also incorporate clients and partners, from freelancers to media and talent. There are no actors in this project; just regular people that played an active role in the campaign’s development—which makes this initiative even more outstanding though its honesty and vulnerability.

Creative Chaos is the first project of its kind on the local market. Though this production, Minio Studio aims to show that advertising is not just about brainstorming and cool creative ideas. Advertising is also about getting results through hard work and careful planning on multiple layers, from strategy and AV production to media and trade marketing.

“This feels very personal. I have seen it as a mix of vulnerability and professionalism. Life in advertising is full of adventures, stress, and difficult interactions. But it also means working alongside amazing people, being creative, finding strategic solutions on the spot and, in the end, enjoying the results. No matter how disciplined we are, there are always new situations that require us to adapt. And one can see this in Creative Chaos, which represents us so well because we are a team of creative problem solvers,” said Ioana Mucenic, the CEO of Minio Studio.

But how did the idea of Creative Chaos come to life? According to Minio Studio representatives, it was all about standing up and owning what they did and how they did it. We live in an era in which we want brands and corporate businesses to be open, transparent, brave, and vulnerable. However, in the advertising world, agencies are rarely like this. We all want our image to be very polished, and look as perfect as possible.

“We decided that we wanted to be more authentic, show more of ourselves, our people, as well as our processes, our ways of thinking, and our mistakes. It’s a lot of hard work to conceive and implement a campaign, while also considering the human side of it—people being tired, people losing focus. This is normal in any project and it’s very important how we manage this. So, for us, Creative Chaos is a manifesto for authenticity, vulnerability, and transparency. It shows the human side of advertising and also something

of a unicorn: a truly excellent relationship between an agency and its clients,” Ioana Mucenic explained.

Creative Chaos also wants to show the real process of how the team conceives, plans, and implements a real project. All the facts are real, the people are real, the clients speak their mind. There is nothing fake about it. In the first series, the agency showed an awarded campaign created for Mondelez and Macromex—Snackology. And they want to continue with more series, more campaigns being presented step by step, from behind the scenes.

It’s a way of showing that Minio Studio is a modern agency that talks the talk and walks the walk. “We go all in when we set a direction, we love our work, and we are not ashamed of saying that we are not perfect, as long as we keep improving. We have a very open culture; people are allowed to make mistakes if they learn from them, we are collaborative, we feel free to speak up,” Mucenic added. The agency values empathy because it’s a human-centric organisation. It’s important to relate to one another with care and consideration—and this is also true for how they see their clients and consumers. Empathy, enthusiasm, and creativity— it’s a combo they all share. “We believe in being what we call a ‘happy agency.’ We want to feel good at work, as much as possible, and that means being part of a great team, reducing unnecessary pressure, no bureaucracy, no politics, no complex hierarchy, time for work and time for life. We believe that a job should provide the context for a person to flourish, not to end up stressed and in need of a holiday. We are striving to do all this; sometimes we succeed, sometimes we fail. But this is the vision, and our colleagues are the ones who make it all possible.”

AGENCIES’ EXPECTATIONS

But what do other agencies expect of their employees? “We can’t say that a Jam colleague should be a certain way. What I can say is that years ago I heard the Creative Director of Happiness saying something that stuck into my mind: “I am always looking for good and good people: good talent and good character.” This is how we recruit. People who are passionate about their jobs, thirsty and eager to learn more, people who are nice—but not in the sense of not being competitive. If I had to make a comparison, I’d say they should be competitive like the Chicago Bulls in their early glory days as opposed to the aggressive performers of the Detroit Pistons,” said Andreea Ghenoiu, creative partner at Jam Session, one of the most awarded independent Romanian agencies. “At first glance, the people of Jam don’t have much in common,

as there’s a gap of over 20 years between the youngest and the oldest, we have introverts, extroverts, people with different views about life, different hobbies or tastes in music. But the thing that keeps us together is basic: we all have a passion for creative ideas which translates into co-creation, having a voice, fighting for ideas over and over, being independent and able to adapt to change, and being a partner for our clients. It does not matter if you are an account manager, a planner or a creative person,” added Ghenoiu’s colleague, Ioana Cadir, co-managing partner at Jam Session Agency. Anca Catarambol, chief talent officer at Publicis Groupe Romania, also doesn't believe in typologies and in placing a person in one category or another. For this reason, she also does not believe that there is one candidate or employee who’s more desirable than another—on the contrary, she thinks that each of us has something to offer, whether it’s an idea, a vision, experience, knowledge, and so on. However, there are certain things, perhaps having to do with attitude and vision, that can help an employee integrate and adapt to the specifics of advertising work. “I would therefore say that an ideal Publicis Groupe Romania employee is curious, passionate about what they do, a lifelong learner, authentic and, of course, has the right dose of ownership and autonomy. All these things contribute to daily activity, from relationships with clients and colleagues to understanding the target audience or finding that big idea that everyone dreams about.”

STILL A SOUGHT-AFTER INDUSTRY?

For a long, long time, advertising was considered to be one of the sexiest and most attractive industries to work in, especially in Romania, with people leaving important business fields such as architecture, engineering or design to come work in marcomm. The awards, the parties, the salaries, the travel, the glam and fame were all great incentives for a while. What’s it like today, though? “I think that even after all this time, I can say that it is still sexy. And this is determined by the very nature of the people in this industry and the job typology. You get the rare opportunity to work alongside extremely creative people on projects that are totally unique. Diversity is what defines every working day, whether you spend it at the office, at the client’s, at a great product launch or on a set. And the most important thing is that we don't just work together; above all, we have fun together. We don’t have the rigidity and constraints of other industries. Without exaggeration, I can say that having the initiative

to go outside of patterns and explore new possibilities is precisely what we encourage,” said Anca Catarambol.

For her, the Romanian advertising industry is still fun and dynamic, a combination of business and creativity. It is an industry with wonderful people who somehow always manage to find that fine line between the seriousness of doing your job well and the right dose of bohemian atmosphere. “Despite its significant development over the last decade, the industry has not moved towards a corporate style, it is not industrialised, and it remains people-focused. At the same time, we at Publicis Groupe Romania also enjoy the benefits of belonging to a multinational group. Therefore, on the one hand, we have a creative and fun working environment, where there is a lot of emphasis on people, and on the other hand, the stability offered by the Groupe, complemented by access to know-how and openness to multicultural experiences, through teams made up of people who can be hundreds or even thousands of kilometres away from each other and still work very well together,” said the chief talent officer of Publicis Groupe Romania.

Advertising is—and will remain—an industry that sits at the intersection of many fields (creative, media, marketing, data, etc.), attracting and combining the best of all of them in surprising ways.

Having been working in the industry for 18 years and being used to comparing the old with the new, often feeling that “the old” was better, Ioana Mucenic no longer thinks that this type of melancholy is necessary. Since the explosion of content production, she believes that advertising is a great place to be in. It brings so many opportunities to be creative, to meet amazing people, to test ideas, to explore. And aside from creative opportunities, the industry also offers data and tech jobs, for those who may be more analytical.

“I do think that the industry is getting more exciting. But I don’t think it’s necessarily more attractive or more inspiring. And that’s because there are industries and roles which are better fitted for the younger generations nowadays. There are so many exciting startups in various fields, corporations where you work at a global scale, the possibility of becoming a content creator, and many more. We are finding it more difficult to recruit and retain talent nowadays. On the other hand, agencies have been working in a pretty similar way for ages. I do believe that there is plenty of room for improvement, and that we could be more agile, more engaging,

more focused on creation, not just execution,” Ioana Mucenic added.

Moreover, according to the Minio Studio representative, probably due to the market’simitations, the agencies in Romania are more solution-driven and more creative. However, we have very low budgets compared to other countries (not to even mention UK or US), and we still lack bravery and accountability. . Mucenic is seeing a generational change, as there are more and more young people in marketing roles. But on one hand, they lack the structure of old school marketing and branding and the patience to build brands. On the other hand, they are more open to fresh ideas and more willing to experiment.

“What I’m also noticing is the need for strategic thinking: more research, better consumer/people understanding, more datadriven decisions, more bravery to take on a territory, as well as a long-term perspective. I feel like creativity and strategy are not well balanced. There are many clients who prefer a spark, an idea, a moment of hype, instead of a solid construction. I do believe that we need both, but the industry feels to be in a rush for the next cool thing, for more likes and views, for fast results,” Mucenic concluded.

For her part, Andreea Ghenoiu said that the Jam Session Agency team has a lot of young people, so Gen Z is well represented. And from what she can tell, it still feels cool for them. But they all have other activities, which entertain them and provide them with

insights for advertising. If advertising also quenches their thirst for content and if they can express themselves through it, they feel motivated and give the best of their native digital skills. “And yes, young people are still into Cannes, festivals, having the best work on the market, and they are ambitious. I know about the so-called snowflakes generation, but what I see in my agency is tremendous grit and a great capacity to rebound in this advertising game.” That’s because we are still living in a country where we must play it smart, as budgets are not comparable to those in global hubs. This is what makes the creative challenge even more interesting. “And I strongly believe that we have some very juicy local flavours that not many countries have: from music to characters and the nature of our humour,” Andreea Ghenoiu argued.

Finally, as Ioana Cadir noted, Jam Session’s representatives re aware that people’s needs have changed significantly in recent years and that the “sexiness” has multiple layers, not all of which are related to the creative product. Younger generations are looking for a better balance between their jobs and what keeps them motivated and entertained, and they’ve discovered how to make a job out of the things they do for fun.

METRO is a long-standing supporter of the businesses in the HoReCa sector and is constantly developing solutions in order to help advertise and consolidate them, from products tailored to professional needs, such as the METRO CHEF own brand, to consultancy, digital solutions and innovative projects dedicated to the hospitality industry.

This year, METRO aims to help the hospitality industry by launching three original guides, developed by METRO specialists and experts in order to increase the visibility of its customers and to offer them practical help in running their business.

Through the “Romania Travel Guide 2022”, at its second edition, METRO brings to the spotlight the potential of Romanian tourism, presenting over 250 tourist attractions, but also over 150 accommodation units and restaurants, all METRO customers from all over the country.

This guide comes after the “Venues for Events” guide that METRO launched in March, which promotes more than 200 fabulous venues belonging to its customers, all able to fully accommodate and organize weddings, baptisms and other private or corporate parties.

All locations presented in the two guides are accompanied by relevant photos and a QR code that the readers can scan to get access to all the details about each location. Both guides are supported by constant advertising in the digital media, so that the locations included in the guide are made known to as many potential customers as possible. METRO’s third launch is a “Hygiene Guide”, centralizing the information which entrepreneurs in the hospitality industry need to create, properly implement and optimize the strictest control systems (HACCP). The hygiene guide aims to both showcase the range of cleaning products that professional customers can find on the shelf, while also offering a series of useful information in order to properly implement HACCP standards and practical fact sheets that METRO customers can download on metro. ro and use at their locations. With a complex content, validated by the teams of METRO experts, the three guides are available for free on www.metro.ro.

For METRO, its customers are first of all partners. A successful partnership is always based on a common vision and constant collaboration. METRO will always come up with initiatives to support the HoReCa industry.

TM Roh, the president of Samsung Electronics' MX Business, believes the time has come for foldable phones with screens that are twice the size of current smartphones. But until foldable phones become mainstream, it's worth taking a look at the other innovative features smartphone manufacturers are bringing to devices that have become "classics."

By Aurel Constantin

The Xpedition vivo X80 Pro launch Berlin

The global telecommunications industry is dominated by a small number of giants based in the US, Asia, and Europe. But there is still room for new players who could replace top companies. History proves that no matter how big a manufacturer is, it can completely disappear in just a few years. The best example is Nokia, which was not able to adapt to the smartphone era and was quickly pushed out of the industry.

Currently, Samsung (South Korea) is still fighting with Apple (US) for the top spot globally. Samsung had a market share of 28.2 percent as of June 2022, while Apple held 27.2 percent, according to Statcounter data. In third place is Xiaomi (China), with 13 percent, followed by Huawei with 6.1 percent. The fifth place is held by Oppo with 5.8 percent, followed by Vivo with 4.3 percent. Two or three years ago, Huawei was fighting for the top spot with Samsung and Apple, but the embargo imposed by the Americans on the use of US-made software affected their global sales. Despite the fact that Huawei still makes some of the best phones in the world, including foldables, the ban has allowed Xiaomi to rise to the top. Moreover, we are seeing new manufacturers, such as Oppo and vivo, also gaining solid market share.

The economic crisis and the war in Ukraine have hit the smartphone market. Global shipments fell by 9 percent in the second quarter of the year, compared to the same quarter of 2021, according to Canalys data. “Vendors were forced to review their tactics in Q2 as the outlook for the smartphone market became more cautious,” said Canalys Research Analyst Runar Bjørhovde. “Economic headwinds, sluggish demand, and inventory pileup have resulted in vendors rapidly reassessing their portfolio strategies for the rest of 2022. The oversupplied midrange is an exposed segment for vendors to focus on adjusting new launches, as budgetconstrained consumers shift their device purchases toward the lower end.”

“Falling demand is causing great concern for the entire smartphone supply chain,” said Canalys Analyst Toby Zhu. “While component supplies and cost pressures are easing, a few concerns remain within logistics and production, such as some emerging markets’ tightening import laws and customs procedures delaying shipments. In the near term, vendors will look to accelerate sell-through using promotions and offers ahead of new launches during the holiday season to alleviate the channel’s liquidity pressure. But in contrast to last year’s pent-up demand, consumers’ disposable income has been affected by soaring inflation this year. Deep collaboration with channels to monitor the state of inventory and supply will be vital for

vendors to identify short-term opportunities while maintaining healthy channel partnerships in the long run.”

PUSHING CAMERA CAPABILITIES

Each manufacturer’s flagship provides a

preview of the technology that will eventually be used in mid-range phones, the devices generating the bulk of sales (over 250 million units in the last quarter). And since most innovations are related to camera capabilities, vendors are pushing the limits in that area.

The Samsung Galaxy S22 range, Google’s Pixel 6, and the iPhone 13 series are all fo-

cused on 5G performance, perfect usability, and better cameras. But Xiaomi, Oppo, vivo, Motorola, and others are doing the same things with their flagships. The last launch of this kind was last month, when vivo presented its X80 Pro at the Planetarium in Berlin.

As the camera was the most important part of the device, vivo signed a strategic partnership with Zeiss and tried to bring the quality of a professional camera to its phone. The strategic partnership between vivo and Zeiss has been established for the long term and it is based on the two companies’ ability to understand the needs of consumers in the field of mobile imaging. Both companies want to contribute to the future of smartphone photography, and the R&D department—vivo ZEISS Imaging Laboratory—provides innovations in mobile imaging through advanced optical design, including rigorous lens development and testing, extensive simulation processes to ensure excellent performance, and advanced algorithms and measurements for optical design, all with the aim of reducing distortions, shadows, and color artifacts and allowing users to capture the perfect frame. Vivo’s flagship phones earned a reputation for excellent cameras over the last few years, culminating with 2021’s X70 Pro+, one of the best camera phones on the market. The X80 Pro is meant to pick up the performance and it is doing so with a 50Mp main lens, joined by a 48Mp ultrawide, 12Mp 2x portrait telephoto lens, and a 8Mp 5x periscope lens. All the lenses are using the power of the new V1+ image processing chip and the main lens has an Isocell GNV sensor. The X80 Pro handles low light images very well, especially by using HDR to balance out bright lights in otherwise dark scenes.

Furthermore, all rear lenses have Zeiss branding and benefit from the company’s T lens coating, which reduces glare and reflec-

tions. There are also a few Zeiss photo filters, including a Zeiss branded cinematic video mode, which films in a wide cinema-style aspect ratio at 24 fps (frames per second) with a bokeh effect, to replicate the Hollywood feel.

All the flagships, including the X80 Pro, are using advanced AI capabilities, which is a way of improving the quality of the lenses since the optical performance will never be as good as that of professional cameras. As stated during the presentation in Berlin, all manufacturers are trying to find a balance between performance, camera, battery, and design. For all of these to be at their best possible level, you would need to have a phone the size of a brick, which is not a good selling point. After using the phone on a daily basis, we can say that the vivo X80 Pro is an excellent phone, featuring a stunning display, a good battery life, and one of the best cameras in the industry. Software is where the flagship falls behind though, since it is loaded with bloatware. It is a good rival for Samsung’s S22 or Apple’s iPhone 13, but with a price tag of over EUR 1,000.

Right now, we are waiting to see what the second half of the year brings in terms of innovation from vendors. Samsung is set to launch in August, and Apple should stick to its usual September release.

Business Review once again turned the spotlight on Romania’s major real estate players at Realty Forum 2022, an event that provided a glimpse into the plans of the most important developers, investors, builders, and service providers on the office, residential, and logistics markets. Realty Forum also hosted the launch of the 2022 Real Estate Guided Premium edition, celebrating the 21 years over the course of which it has established itself as the voice of the Romanian real estate industry.

By Aurel Constantin

The current economic conditions are not ideal, as the pandemic lingers, the war in Ukraine continues, the energy market is in crisis, and inflation is hitting every pocket. But life goes on, and we have to find solutions for everything that comes on our way. The real estate sector was hit badly by the rising prices of construction materials and energy, which started last fall, bringing many public projects to a standstill. But the private sector has managed to keep going and even though we won’t see as many deliveries this year as we did last year, the demand for new office, residential, and industrial spaces remains high. Vlad Damian, Head of the Investor Leasing Office at CBRE Romania, said that “deliveries this year will be half of those of last year, so we’re already seeing the effects of the freeze in permits. Construction is on a declining trend that’s so significant that we cannot make a valid estimation for this year.”

But investments will continue, thinks Andreea Cotiga, Senior Leasing Manager at Immofinanz Romania. “In today’s conditions, I think that we are going to see more investments. At Immmofinanz, we’ve had an intense period since the beginning of the year, as we’ve continued to develop and implement the myhive office concept in other buildings in our portfolio. Towards the end of the year, we will launch myhive Victoria Park in north Bucharest. We’ve upgraded all the areas of the building and have already secured tenants for the offices. I am proud to say that the 6,500-sqm leased area will host the country’s first dermatology and oncological surgery hospital in the private healthcare system. We’ve also managed to secure over 30,000 sqm in our office portfolio with new lease extensions. We are also continuing our investments in our latest purchase on Calea Victoriei, Bucharest Financial Plaza. This property will undergo a major remodelling scheme, which will transform the entire area. Our aim is to be able to accommodate any request from our tenants.”

AFI Europe, another important industry player operating on three segments of the market—retail, office, and residential—will launch new projects as well as continue developing its existing properties. “Our strategy is to make further investments and launch new projects in all 3 segments. This year, we will finalise the second phase of AFI Tech Park, which is a 25,000-sqm office project. Its construction started during the pandemic period and it is now complete. The second office project that will start in August is AFI

”WE THINK THAT DELIVERIES THIS YEAR WILL BE HALF OF THOSE OF LAST YEAR, SO WE’RE ALREADY SEEING THE EFFECTS OF THE FREEZE IN PERMITS. CONSTRUCTION IS ON A DECLINING TREND SO SIGNIFICANT THAT WE CANNOT MAKE A VALID ESTIMATION FOR THIS YEAR,” VLAD DAMIAN,

HEAD OF THE INVESTOR LEASING OFFICE AT CBRE ROMANIA ”I AM PROUD TO SAY THAT THE 6,500SQM LEASED AREA WILL HOST THE COUNTRY’S FIRST DERMATOLOGY AND ONCOLOGICAL SURGERY HOSPITAL IN THE PRIVATE HEALTHCARE SYSTEM. WE’VE ALSO MANAGED TO SECURE OVER 30,000 SQM IN OUR OFFICE PORTFOLIO WITH NEW LEASE

JAN DEMEYERE, CO-FOUNDER & PARTNER AT SPEEDWELL

Loft, an extension of the AFI Cotroceni Mall, a very interesting project in terms of architecture. The offices will be built on top of the mall, to be finalised in 2025. On the residential side, we will build the AFI Home project on Dimitrie Pompeiu Boulevard, where we bought land last year, with 400 apartments delivered in two phases, creating a home for our office tenants in north Bucharest. We will offer special packages for our office tenants. We are also getting ready to begin construction in Arad, where we will build 30,000 sqm of retail spaces,” said Emma Toma, Head of the Office Division at AFI Europe.

Another important project is Vastint Romania’s MIRO Offices, the building located on the DN1 road, with a total area of 25,000 sqm. “The building is 89 percent finalised and we are very happy with that. The Triama project is in the last phase, in the east of Bucharest, where the first two blocks are completely sold out. We also have a project in Timisoara, where we will begin construction in a few months, combining 50,000 sqm of offices with retail spaces and a residential component of 230 apartments. Last but not least, we have bought a very big lot in Bucharest: Griro on Calea Grivitei. It is a very challenging project, a mixed development with things that make me happy as an architect. We are waiting for the construction permits,” said Antoniu Panait, Managing Director at Vastint Romania.

Maria Tudorica, Commercial Real Estate Manager at Genesis Property, noted that the projects the company manages meet all the needs of today’s employees, since coming to the office has become a choice for most of them. “Flexibility has become the new currency, and on the same note we have the co-living element, which is somehow made for digital nomads. The experience area will feature a huge food court, a space for residents and other people in Bucharest to enjoy. What we’re trying to do there is invite people to enjoy life at the office while having access to all the facilities they need to enhance their professional and personal lives, letting them enrich each other.”

PERMITTING PROBLEMS

freeze. Developers are having to wait months and even years to get the papers required to start a project. The worst case is in Bucharest, where since city plans (PUG and PUZ) have been suspended. “Permits are an ongoing nightmare. Teams have been working on the General Urbanism Plan for the last 15 years and they have arrived nowhere. On top of that, the PUZ is suspended. I can’t see any way out, not for Bucharest at least, since there is no political will to move things in the right direction,” said Serban Patriciu, Head of the Romania Real Estate Practice at Noerr. “The permits situation used to be the elephant in the room, and now it’s even worse. Nothing is moving, we are just waiting, and we’re discussing with the authorities, but to no avail. Everything is at a standstill and it is hurting the local economy. We need to get all the people involved together and see what we can do to get things started,” said Antoniu Panait.

OFFICE MARKET TRENDS

After so many changes in the last two years, it is difficult for the office market to predict what companies and employees will want or need in the future. But flexibility will surely play an important role for employees, while companies will search for quality offices to offer them the best conditions. “Speaking of trends, there are some clear directions we’ve seen in the last 2 years. First of all, most of the companies that want to rent an office space or expand their operations are looking at new office buildings. The decline in the stock of new projects and buildings is raising interest in existing projects. This is a good thing, because it will put more pressure on developers to improve the quality of their buildings and even refurbish the ones they own. But we’ve learned that there are activities that can be better done from home, so not all companies have returned to the office. The lowest office return rate is in the

”THE FIRST SIX MONTHS OF THE YEAR WERE VERY PROMISING, WITH APPROXIMATELY 500,000 SQM TRADED NATIONWIDE, REPRESENTING 52 PERCENT OF THE TOTAL DEMAND TRADED IN 2020, THE RECORD YEAR FOR THE INDUSTRIAL AND LOGISTICS SEGMENT. WE THEREFORE EXPECT 2022 TO BE A GOOD YEAR FOR

TRANSACTIONS,” DANIELA GAVRIL, HEAD OF RESEARCH AT CBRE ROMANIA ”MANY OF OUR CLIENTS TOLD US THAT THEY WANTED TO HAVE GREEN SPACES IN AND AROUND THE OFFICES. THIS IS A CONSEQUENCE OF THE PANDEMIC AND THE CONFINEMENT THAT CAME WITH IT. GREEN SPACES, GREEN FEATURES, AND FUN FACILITIES THAT MAKE PEOPLE FEEL HAPPY—THESE ARE THE THINGS OUR TENANTS ARE LOOKING

”IN MY OPINION, THE TREND OF REMOTE AND HYBRID WORK IS NOT TAKEN SERIOUSLY, BUT IT IS GOING TO BE A VERY IMPORTANT TOPIC FOR THE FUTURE. COMPANIES WILL HAVE REPRESENTATIVE OFFICES AS WELL AS SATELLITE OFFICES FOR HYBRID WORK. THE REPURPOSING OF EXISTING OFFICE BUILDINGS IS ALSO

IT&C industry, where many employees have decided to continue working from home,” said Emma Toma.

INDUSTRIAL AND LOGISTICS

The second panel of Realty Forum was dedicated to industrial and logistics spaces— particularly on planned investments, but also on the challenges the sector is facing today. “The first six months of the year were very promising, with approximately 500,000 sqm traded nationwide, representing 52 percent of the total demand traded in 2020, the record year for the industrial and logistics segment,” said Daniela Gavril, Head of Research at CBRE Romania.

“In the first six months of the year, we continued all the projects we have previously started; we currently have projects in Bucharest, Targu Mures, and Constanta, and we’ve had deliveries in Pitesti and Timisoara. I think that by the end of the year we will be able to deliver almost 100,000 sqm which are now under construction. Some of it has already been delivered. From this point of view, we’ve not experienced any deviation from our plan,” said Sorin Preda, CEO & Founder at Global Vision. However, he pointed out that things could be going even better. Today’s context is complicated, with a health crisis that continues even after two years and with a military conflict happening very close to our borders. These have forced companies to make big changes. For example, e-commerce, a sector that grew rapidly during the pandemic, had rising demand for storage spaces, but it also had a lot of difficulties due to supply chain problems.

The same context has required changes in infrastructure, with a need for storage facilities located next to highways and railroads. One of these projects was developed by ILD Romania at Decea, near the centre of the country. “There is high demand for spaces in the Decea project due to the nature of the project. At Decea, halfway between Turda and Sebes, the two main nodes on the area’s highway system, ILD started a project featuring industrial and logistics halls. Our idea was to anchor a project in the centre of the country that would serve the region and create the opportunity of an industrial platform for complementary activities,” said Laurentiu-Catalin Hanu, Country Manager at ILD Romania.

“First of all, we saw a market that needed the services provided by the Decea intermodal terminal. Intermodal transport means an additional communication path for the region and it means connectivity for the transport of goods both to and from the port. It creates predictability, which is vital for logisticians. Retailers, in turn, are also looking at a smaller carbon footprint, which we achieve by using rail and electric trains,” Laurentiu Hanu added.

The quality of logistics services is very important since they are a part of the support offered to businesses. And in order to offer quality, logistics companies must overcome any challenge that may emerge, such as the workforce shortage. As pointed out by Gabriel Tomescu, CEO at BMF Group, a solution to this problem may be to import workers from Asia, but it is not simple as it takes a long time, and time is not something developers can spare. “In terms of support services, a project without high quality services cannot be successful, regardless of how big the investment is. The first six months of the year have been much better than I had predicted. We’re now facing many difficult situations; the geopolitical context has completely changed our supply chain. But we have managed to find solutions so far, as we must deliver good services to customers,” he concluded.

”AT DECEA, HALFWAY BETWEEN TURDA AND SEBES, THE TWO MAIN NODES ON THE AREA’S HIGHWAY SYSTEM, ILD STARTED A PROJECT FEATURING INDUSTRIAL AND LOGISTICS HALLS. OUR IDEA WAS TO ANCHOR A PROJECT IN THE CENTRE OF THE COUNTRY THAT WOULD SERVE THE REGION AND CREATE THE OPPORTUNITY OF AN INDUSTRIAL PLATFORM FOR COMPLEMENTARY ACTIVITIES,”

The event ended with Business Review’s Readers’ Choice Realty Awards. By looking at the best performing companies in the Romanian real estate sector through this lens, based on the metrics generated by news articles, stories, analyses, profiles or interviews over the past 12 months, Business Review was able to identify the most remarkable accomplishments in the industry as well as the people behind them!

CUSTOMERS,” GABRIEL TOMESCU, CEO AT BMF GROUP

Daniel Cuevas, Managing Director at Philip Morris Romania, gave an exclusive interview to Business Review and talked about the impact of the company’s investments on Romania’s economy, the organisation’s commitment to its people, and the sustainability goals set for the Otopeni factory.

By Mihai Cristea

What are the main takeaways of the study you conducted with Strategic Thinking Group about Philip Morris Romania’s impact on our country’s economy?

The results of the economic footprint study conducted by Strategic Thinking Group show that PMI’s contribution in Romania has been remarkable. We are an important partner for the state, and we don’t stop here!

In 2020, the total impact of the economic activity we carried out (direct, indirect, and induced) was estimated at RON 4.4 billion. The sale of our products in Romania generated RON 1.9 billion in excise duties and RON 0.6 billion in VAT.

We also generate a significant social impact. PMI employs nearly half of all tobacco sector employees in Romania. The company’s annual employment rate growth between 2016 and 2021 was 7 percent, in contrast to the 1 percent annual decline rate for the entire manufacturing sector over the same period. It took a great financial and professional effort to reach these results, but we are really proud. We are ready to push forward our promise to deliver a smoke-free future. At the end of H1 2022, how much of the promised USD 100 million has already been invested in the Otopeni factory?

We are in the process of transforming the business and the factory in Otopeni. Since 2017, PMI has invested over USD 500 million in transforming the factory into a state-ofthe-art manufacturing facility for smoke-free products. This investment was supplemented by an additional USD 100 million, and while we cannot disclose the amount that has been invested so far in 2022, I can assure you that the entire amount will have been invested by the end of the year. Our commitment remains clear: strong investments and a smoke-free Romania.

How important is the development of a skilled and professional workforce in generating added value for Romania?

PMI is no longer a cigarette manufacturing company, as it was 10-15 years ago, but one that develops products based on science, research, and technology. This means working with highly qualified people. In this process of converting the factory into one that produces consumables for smoke-free products, our employees receive constant training. As a result, new technologies and equipment are being implemented in Romania for the first time. What’s more, the average salaries paid to our employees are well above the national average. In 2020, the average gross salary in the two companies operating in Romania was 1.7 times higher than the national average gross salary.

Who are the people inside Philip Morris Romania and what can you tell us about the company’s investments in its workforce?

We try to encourage our people to develop constantly, both professionally and personally. Between 2016 and 2020, the number of trained staff increased by 39 percent, from 819 to 1,135. We also invest in new talent by developing internal programmes. The number of internships has also increased: over the past 3 years, we’ve hired 99 interns.

We are transforming our business in order to provide better choices for adult smokers who would otherwise continue to smoke.

In terms of environment and sustainability, what is Philip Morris Romania’s strategy and what type of projects have you implemented so far?

We have set an ambitious goal of making our Otopeni factory carbon-neutral by 2024, and we have taken important steps already. First, the share of renewable energies used in the manufacturing process reached 36 percent in 2020, up from zero in 2016; second, no waste generated by our production activities in the Otopeni factory reaches the landfill: 70 percent of waste is recycled externally, and 30 percent is used for energy production.