The collective congress

The Global DIY Summit is perhaps the most visible expression of what the international trade and manufacturer associations Edra/Ghin and Hima stand for: advancing the DIY and gardening industry together. This fundamental idea is reflected more than ever in the programme planning for this year's world congress of DIY stores: the word ‘collective’ appears conspicuously often in the programme announcements.

For the twelfth Global DIY Summit from 16 to 18 June 2026 in Amsterdam, the congress organisers have chosen the motto "Accelerating in a New Global Reality – Building Collective Awareness for a Fast Changing World" and have named the two thematic blocks that structure the programme accordingly: "Collective Awareness" and "Collective Action".

As if to make it clear that these are not recipes from the past for the challenges of the future, they have ensured that the list of speakers published so far includes a whole host of high-profile new speakers alongside some familiar names from previous summits. This time, there will also be a speaker from the USA again: Dan Starr is President and CEO of the specialist trade cooperative Do it Best – a company that has made collective action its raison d'être. For the first time, Joost de Beijer, CEO of the Dutch DIY store group Intergamma, Carlos Malo Cantarino, Industry Global Leader of the European DIY market leader Adeo, and Patricia Grundmann, who made Obi's retail media business big, will also be on the summit stage.

The "Collective Awareness" theme block will focus on the economic, geopolitical and social forces that are changing the global economic environment. The programme includes an outlook on the global economy by Dr Ira Kalish, Chief Global Economist at Deloitte, as well as assessments from retail executives, including Joost de Beijer and Dan Starr.

The "Collective Action" theme block will address how the industry can respond to these changes through collaboration, innovation and joint action. Sacha Stolp, Director of Future-Proof Assets at the City of Amsterdam, Steffen Erath, Head of Innovation and Sustainability at Hansgrohe, and Carlos Malo Cantarino will speak on the topics of sustainability, climate adaptation and decarbonisation.

The summit will follow the tried-and-tested format of previous years: the day before the two-day programme of presentations, there will be a store tour in the Amsterdam region. The congress itself will once again be accompanied by an exhibition with stands from DIY store suppliers. There will also be deliberately long breaks between presentations to give the approximately 1,100 expected participants from more than 50 countries plenty of opportunity to exchange ideas. Experience from the previous eleven conferences has shown that this is how ‘collective awareness’ works: through networking between the relevant players on the retail and supplier side.

An early bird discount is available for ticket bookings for the 12th Global DIY Summit until 16 March 2026. Information and registration here.