The 3rd edition of the REF organized by Medef Hérault Montpellier will have the theme “We turn everything upside down”

magictr | June 17, 2024 | Business | No Comments

Jean-Marc Oluski, président du Medef Hérault Montpellier, lors de la dernière édition de la REF. Midi Libre – JEAN MICHEL MART

Les rencontres se tiendront les 11 et 12 septembre prochains aux Grands Chais, à Mauguio. Au centre des débats : les évolutions observées dans notre société.

The 3rd edition of the REF (Meeting of French Entrepreneurs), organized by Medef Hérault Montpellier and now a traditional back-to-school economic meeting, will be held on September 11 and 12. Like last year, it is the Grands Chais, in Mauguio, which will host the event.

The 2024 edition of the REF will have the theme "We're turning everything upside down!", the opportunity to debate how companies "reinvent themselves". "Like every year, we will question philosophers, economists, elected officials, on current projects", explains Jean-Marc Oluski, president of the employers' organization in Montpellier and linchpin of the event.

"We will have to adapt to more ethical consumption"

More than 250 people have already registered to discuss the central question of the meeting: "how to adapt our society to the Great Deal ?", as the latter specifies. "Tomorrow, we will have to get used to having more ethical consumption, he adds. Today, young people have already integrated this philosophy of responsible consumption. The subject is current and social.

He continues: "We have a market economy which is not one of degrowth. We are rather on a philosophy of responsible economic growth. To answer it, the organizers had the good idea to ask the Montpellier researcher Franck Molina, winner of the medal of the ;rsquo;CNRS 2020 innovation, to come and explain "how our brain adapts to more responsible consumption".

Companies "have a social responsibility"

This desire to propose an offbeat reflection will also allow Chloé Morin, philosopher, author of "When he is 20 years old", to come and talk (in the literal sense of the term) with Michaël Delafosse, mayor of Montpellier and president of the Métropole. "It’is original: proposing a direct dialogue on the economic representation of the territory. We will of course talk about health, tech, etc".

No less than a thousand participants are expected at REF 2024. "The objective is to make this economic return a moment of pause and reflect on subjects that impact us". Companies, continues Jean-Marc Oluski, have "today’a social responsibility, but also political in the Greek sense of the term" .

A "real gap between politics and ’economics"

National political news, even if it will have had its epilogue a few earlier, will inevitably impact the start of the school year. And so, these meetings. "If the political situation in France is complicated, the economic situation is less so, observes the president of Medef Montpellier. But we are in an international competition, we must not fall back too much, that’we drop".

He insists on the fact that business leaders "do not have the feeling of being in a pessimistic logic, of negativity". Pointing out that there is a real gap between politics and economics. This observation will undoubtedly be analyzed by Frédéric Dabi, general director of Ifop, an old regular now at REF Montpellier. If his arrival is part of the round table around the theme "Dare to be frugal", there is no doubt that the temptation to spilling over into political news will be great.