"office furniture is living furniture"

International Veyhl meeting dedicated to the workplace of the future

Neuweiler/Zwerenberg, September 2011. Every second year and over a period of three days Veyhl offers an international platform to customers and experts of the living and office furniture industry. Together with partners and competitors, the objective is to face up to actual challenges and developments - a tradition we could preserve since 1985.

This year, the guideline of the overall 16th professional exchange was "Workplace 2015Plus - office work revolution between high tech and high touch". In today´s professional life, flexibility, interconnectedness and mobility are more important than ever. Will office workplaces, pen and paper vanish? And how new office environments could be created? These were the questions and challenges tackled in discussions and lectures.

The key talk to the subject was presented by Prof. Dr. Hartmut Esslinger, founder of frog design, who is born in the region and today lives in the USA. As an industrial designer he influenced many cult products for companies such as Apple, Sony or Louis Vuitton. During his speech "funture interfaces" he took the audience on a journey through time of the digital user interfaces technology and design. "Office furniture is living furniture" was his statement, emphasizing the importance of individuality of human beings. Under the "form follows emotion" motto Hartmut Esslinger expressed that rather the individual needs than technology will determine the requirements of tomorrow´s workplace design.

In his speech, Dr. Wilhelm Bauer, Managing Director of the Fraunhofer Institute for Industrial engineering IAO in Stuttgart, closed the circle from global social changes such as climate change, urban development or the internet to living and working in tomorrow´s town. Veyhl presented how such a forward-looking solution could look by building a prototype workstation which had been developed in cooperation with the Fraunhofer Institute: On a worktop with three integrated horizontal and one vertical display, digital documents can be touch-scrolled and enlarged. The whole canopied with a LED lighting device simulating natural light conditions and boosting concentration, transformed this workstation into a technology sandbox for all participants. Dr. Matthias Bues of Fraunhofer´s Light Fusion Lab demonstrated in his presentation the different effects of light and workplace lightening on the mental state of human being.

All in all the Veyhl meeting didn´t only offer the approximately 50 guests an intercultural and professional exchange within their industry but also an inspiring view into the future. An attractive programme of accompanying events provided amongst others the possibility to discover Zwerenberg and the Black Forest autumnal idyll along the newly realized local history path.

"60 years of tradition, community and dynamics"

Veyhl celebrates 60th jubilee organising company party for workforce

Neuweiler/Zwerenberg, 15th July 2011. Founded 1951, we celebrate our 60th jubilee in 2011. For this occasion, a summer party was organised for the workforce. In a pavilion with music and several food stands the jubilee gave a great opportunity to recall what we had experienced and achieved during the past 60 years. Therefore a musical picture show took all the guests into a journey through the last 60 years of company history and demonstrated the fast development of Veyhl. "60 years are finally 60 years of tradition, community and dynamics. A progress we want to continue and we can look forward to", accentuated Managing Director Gerhard Wahl at his opening speech. Thereby the past ten years of our company history have been coined by drastic events. The unexpected death of Wolf Veyhl who guided Veyhl during more than 30 years to success, the economic crisis after 9/11 and the following way into insolvency, the acquisition of Veyhl by the Nordwest Industrie Holding or teh foundation of our subsidiary OMT-Veyhl America in the US are just some examples of the past decade of Veyhl history.

Once founded in an old warehouse, Veyhl has evolved from a two-man business to an international organisation. The product line-up of the first years have been as multi-purposed as the creativity of company´s founder Hugo Veyhl. From shopping baskets, delivery vehicles, bottle baskets and bed frames to absorbing ducts or hula-hoop: It was experimented with everything that promised success. Today we are an important partner of the international office furniture industry with currently 340 employees and an export rate of more than 50 percent. As a supplier our competence spectrum reaches from development, design and engineering of product to serial manufacturing ans assembly. Moreover we supply further sectors of indistry, such as machine building, photovoltaic industry, agricultural machinery, medical technology or the automotive industry.

During 60 years we were able to grow steadily and to preserve a lot of traditions such as our inhouse male choir which exists since many years and also embellished the 2011 jubilee. Just as our company health management, our commitment to education or the strong alliance to our local enivironment are part of these Veyhl traditions. Sice 1985 we organise the Veyhl-Meeting, an international platform enabling our customers and business partners to exchange experiences and to discuss current topics related to the office furniture industry. In september 2011 Veyhl will organise the 16th Meeting on which Prof. Dr. Hartmut Esslinger, a surprise guest during our 60th jubilee and worldwide known for his design projects for Apple, Sony, Louis Vuitton and many other will be the main speaker.