WPC Show Wrap-Up

Opening with a circus-themed party, this year's World Perfumery Congress ran the gamut of the fragrance world's fears and hopes. The excess of fragrance launches and the decay it instills in the market was a near-universal theme among speakers, in addition to anxieties about REACH and other looming legislation. However, there were clear calls for innovation and hope for the future. Sumit Bhasin (P&G) called for new technologies to protect fragrance formulas, including novel time-release features. Meanwhile, Ferdinand Storp (drom) gave a rousing talk in which he urged the industry to elevate perfumers and to let creativity fly—marketing a male scent instead to women, hyping the inclusion of a new synthetic in a scent and firing testing panels. Not to worry: cocktail parties and a marvelous fireworks-punctuated gala soothed any frayed fragrance industry nerves.