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The World Vending Association and the European Vending Association will be welcoming international visitors at their joint lounge at the entrance of VendItalia from May 21 to 24 2008 in Milan, Italy. Building on the positive experience of the International Lounge at the National Automatic Merchandising Association's national expo in Chicago, the WVA will be sharing a welcome lounge with the EVA for foreign visitors to be introduced to both WVA and EVA Members.

Courtesy of CONFIDA, the Italian Vending Association and organizer of VendItalia, the lounge aims to offer a space to meet up and explore new borderless business opportunities.

Catherine Piana, EVA director general and WVA CEO, said in a prepared statement: "One of the missions of the WVA is to support the vending shows organized by its member associations and give them a truly international dimension by using the WVA network to attract foreign visitors to these shows. This is adding value to the Italian and European vending businesses by giving them an opportunity to meet with non-European operators who are looking for equipments or products. It is also a meeting point for operators where they can share their vision on how to improve cost-efficiency whilst meeting the consumers' expectations. A number of meetings are being organized under the aegis of the WVA, with players from Europe, on the one hand, and Asia and Latin America, on the other hand."

Nina Poumpalova, the EVA member relations officer, will welcome the visitors at the WVA/EVA lounge. Members of the EVA and WVA who wish to meet up with any of our visitors from Japan, Colombia or Mexico are invited to contact Poumpalova as soon as possible.

She will assist international visitors with interpretation in 6 languages: Bulgarian, English, French, Italian, Russian and Spanish and provide information on the different benefits of being a EVA member and/or WVA member, as well as on the products, services and events organized by the organizations.

The EVA represents the whole of the vending industry: machine, machine component and accessories manufacturers, ingredient suppliers and operators. The primary aim of the EVA is to optimize the industry's commercial interests within the E.U. legislation, serve as a forum of discussion and exchange of ideas and experience for its members as well as draft standards for the industry. For information, go to: www.vending-europe.eu.

The WVA was set up to tackle the increasingly large number of decisions, made at a global level, that impact the vending industry daily. It speaks on behalf of the vending industry in 24 countries and represents 20,000 companies operating some 10 million vending machines.