Patrick and I just got back on Saturday from our three week journey to Munich, Tunis and Antwerp (with a one day side visit to Köln to see Southern fried rock legends Lynyrd Skynyrd in concert! – thanks again to Ralf Samorin for arranging the tickets for us!).  With as many days missed in the office as I have had in a long while I can still say that this was one heck of a productive time.

Transport Logistic 2009 turned out to be a major success for us in that with nearly 48,000 visitors and hundreds of exhibitors in eight exhibition halls GPLN was the only project logistics network that was represented.  Of course we saw some old friends but we made many new ones in the mean time.  The visit to Munich also was reinforced what I found in Russia the month before:  There are many good solid companies out there who know about the GPLN brand and view it very positively.

On the promotional front we debuted our GPLN baseball caps, which were a hit (no pun intended) with almost everyone.  These caps were passed out to members who attended the annual conference as well as serious GPLN prospects and other key players in the project cargo industry.  The hats are very special because on the bill (visor) of these caps are photos of moves done by GPLN members making each cap unique.

Tunis, in my opinion, was a testament to the group we have been building these past five years.  Like I said to the quorum in my opening presentation, we had gathered together in our room the most experienced group of professional project cargo experts in the world.  Other groups strive for what we have accomplished here and I really feel bad for the people who couldn’t make it.  By all the feedback I have received the meetings went very well between the members and both of our Gold Level Sponsors, Rickmers-Linie and Beluga Shipping, were well received!  (By the way, if you wanted copies of either the Rickmers or the Beluga presentations please let me know and I will try to arrange it for you.  Also, if you want a copy of the Beluga project cargo handbook let me know – I will need the complete address where Beluga can forward this to you though).

Besides the great meeting I would like to give a very special thanks to SNS International and Afrimar for sponsoring the most excellent banquet dinner that we have ever had in our six GPLN meetings!  Those who missed this dinner really missed a memorable time.  The location was superb, the weather was perfect, the food was top notch and even the sunset cooperated to make the evening great.  SNS International and Afrimar have definitely set the standard for how these banquet dinners could go.

Also we owe a special thank you to The Freight Company (Thailand) for sponsoring the welcome reception cocktail.  This was a very good mixer that got us all in the mood for a good meeting in a great location.

In Tunis we also got lots of business taken care of.  For those who saw my presentation they are aware of some up coming changes regarding membership terms and conditions as well as how we will approach participation in GPLN exhibition booths.  I also reminded everyone about getting me information for press releases, stories for newsletters and photos for the website.  And, not to deviate too much, but if you haven’t seen our photo gallery on the website recently, you really ought to take a look.  It gets more and more impressive as time marches on:  http://www.gpln.net/cpg1420/album.php

Finally, off to Antwerp for the BreakBulk Europe Conference & Exhibition 2009 where I was a panelist in one of the round table discussions (regarding what happens when project cargo is held for non-payment).  I found this conference greatly expanded in both space and in terms of bodies.  The conference nearly doubled in visitors from 1400 in 2008 to 2600 in 2009.  I met some really good prospects from other parts of the world as well such as Africa and Latin America.

For anyone who did not make it to these conferences all I can say is that some solid opportunities were there to be had.  I really hope you can make these events next year.  We really got lots of work done, got our names out there even more and built on our mutual relationships.  I am very tired after these three weeks, but at the same time I am very positive and optimistic about the future of our group!  I want to thank all of you who pitched in and made it such a great success.