Building the Global Meeting Place for Circular Tech – A Conversation with Priscilla Tirvengadum & Stéphane Canal from Retech Days

The refurbished technology industry has evolved rapidly over the past few years. As the market has matured, collaboration across manufacturers, telecom operators, retailers, refurbishers and technology providers has become increasingly important.

With #StrongerInCircles, we speak with people who bring different perspectives to circularity and its practical implementation.

For this interview, we spoke with Priscilla Tirvengadum, Global Event Director at Dataxis, and Stéphane Canal, Event Manager EMEA at Dataxis. Together, they lead the organization of Retech Days, an international conference series dedicated to the refurbished technology industry.

In the conversation, they explain how Retech Days has evolved since its launch, how the refurbished technology industry has changed over the years, and why they believe collaboration across the ecosystem is becoming increasingly important.

Retech Days is very much a team effort. While Priscilla and I are the public faces of the event, we're supported by the wider Dataxis team, who bring expertise in research, content, sales, marketing and event operations. Our role is to shape the vision of the conference: identifying the industry's biggest challenges, building an agenda that reflects where the market is heading, and bringing together the right mix of stakeholders. That means spending months speaking with manufacturers, telecom operators, retailers, marketplaces, refurbishers, recyclers, investors and policymakers to understand what really matters to them. One of the strengths of Dataxis is that we organize conferences across several technology sectors. That gives us access to an extensive international network and allows us to spot trends early and connect industries that don't always speak to one another. Retech Days has always been about creating meaningful conversations rather than simply filling a conference agenda.

When we launched the first edition, the refurbished device market was growing rapidly, but there wasn't really a dedicated international event bringing together the entire ecosystem. Many conferences focused on sustainability or consumer electronics more broadly, but very few addressed the complete lifecycle of electronic devices: from trade-in and refurbishment to resale, repair, recycling and circular business models. We felt there was an opportunity to create a platform where every stakeholder could exchange ideas and learn from one another. Since then, the event has evolved alongside the industry. We expanded beyond Europe with Retech Days MENA, introduced Retech Days Business to focus on enterprise lifecycle management, and today we're bringing these communities together under one flagship event in Berlin. Our ambition isn't simply to organize conferences—it's to build the reference meeting place for the global circular technology ecosystem.

The biggest change has probably been the level of maturity. A few years ago, refurbishment was still perceived by many as a niche or sustainability-driven activity. Today it's becoming a strategic business for manufacturers, telecom operators, retailers and enterprises alike. We've also seen incredible innovation. AI-powered diagnostics, automated grading, digital trade-in journeys, enterprise fleet lifecycle management, battery health assessment and omnichannel customer experiences have transformed the industry. Perhaps most importantly, the conversation has shifted. Companies are no longer asking whether circular business models matter—they're asking how to scale them profitably while meeting customer expectations and regulatory requirements.

I'd describe it as ambitious, collaborative and increasingly confident. The industry has moved beyond proving that refurbishment works. Companies are now focused on scaling operations, improving quality standards and building long-term consumer trust. At the same time, collaboration has become essential. No single company can build a circular ecosystem alone. OEMs, telecom operators, retailers, logistics providers, repair specialists, recyclers and technology platforms all need to work together. That's one of the reasons why events like Retech Days have become so important. They provide a neutral environment where competitors can openly discuss common challenges and collectively move the industry forward.

While both markets revolve around extending the life of devices, they're driven by very different priorities. In B2C, success depends largely on consumer confidence. Buyers want transparency, reliable grading, strong warranties, simple trade-in experiences and competitive pricing. Building trust remains fundamental. B2B, on the other hand, is becoming increasingly strategic. Enterprises are managing thousands of devices across multiple countries, making lifecycle management far more complex. Topics such as secure data erasure, asset tracking, reverse logistics, ESG reporting and fleet optimization are becoming business-critical. What's particularly interesting is that the two worlds are starting to converge. Technologies developed for enterprise fleet management often improve consumer experiences, while innovations in retail trade-in programs are influencing how businesses manage their own devices. Ultimately, both markets are contributing to the same objective: keeping technology in use for longer and making circularity a core part of the electronics industry rather than an alternative to it.