Executive Directors Report on the GPLN Global
General Meeting in Kuala Lumpur, March 12th - 14th, 2008
GPLN Members,
I just wanted to get a message out to all members congratulating the attendees
at the Global Project Logistics Network (GPLN) for helping us to make our most
successful conference ever! In the feedback I have received the event was
declared by all a roaring success. Most GPLN members by now are aware that due
to our very robust expansion around the world during the past year leading up to
this conference we had about double the attendance that we did in our last
meeting in Prague less than a year ago. And I might add that all of the
project shippers who showed up were very happy with what they found in
Malaysia. From the comments I heard at the end of the meeting those who
attended pretty much all took home business and hot prospects. This is the best
example of why our group is a benefit to project professionals around the
world. It also gives me a satisfaction that we are doing a good service to the
industry.
I should say that attendees of this meeting came from all over. There were GPLN
representatives from every continent present representing forwarding and
chartering companies with very diverse backgrounds and experiences. But all
attendees shared the common thread of being project forwarding professionals. I
would like to add that the diversity of the attendees at the GPLN meeting this
year reflected the changes in the industry as well. We had more women at the
event this time than we ever had before and we also saw a greater balance of
project professionals from Asia compared with Europe, which is a trend I have
seen in the past few meetings too. We had the greatest representation in Latin
America that we have had in the past as well. I could also see from the
presentations and meetings that many in our industry are trying to stay ahead of
the information technology curve. It was very impressive what these project
forwarders are up to these days.
I took time in my own presentation to discuss upcoming events that GPLN would
like to take part in and also discuss how to use our own newsletter, which was
distributed to all attendees, as a public relations megaphone for all GPLN
members’ companies. We at GPLN can get news about your companies to other
members, potential members and other industry professionals. There are also
advertising options as well and GPLN members can also buy additional copies if
they so desire. These targeted industry events and our newsletters are very
important for marketing of GPLN in general and marketing of the GPLN members’
services in particular. Let’s all participate as best we can!
I would like to remind our members that for the first time in our history we
have had a sponsor from the industry, Rickmers-Linie GmbH, who was represented
at our GPLN conference by Andreas Rocksien, Rickmers’ regional director in
ingapore. Rickmers was also represented by Andrew Kerr and Jonathan Heng of Ben
Lines in Malaysia, the local representative for Rickmers-Linie GmbH. Andreas
gave a very interesting presentation on what Rickmers is up to these days and he
stayed available during the entire conference to meet with GPLN attendees. We
would like to thank Rickmers-Linie GmbH for their support throughout this year.
I would also like to remind everyone that Rickmers has placed an advertisement
on the back of our latest newsletter issue so I ask you to have a look at it
when you get the chance.
Also making a presentation at the GPLN conference was Luke King of Heavy Lift &
Project Forwarding International magazine. Luke showed us how his
company’s publication is well aligned with our goal of disseminating information
about GPLN and individual GPLN members around the world. Although their
magazine is still young, Heavy Lift & Project Forwarding International has well
covered GPLN and our activities in both of their first two issues and will
continue to do so in their third and subsequent issues. Luke asked our members
to make sure to send press releases to his magazine on a regular basis and also
to have a look at using their magazine as a forum for advertising to the project
cargo industry in general. And like Andreas Rocksien, Luke also graciously
stayed the duration of the meeting to meet with and answer questions of our
members regarding Heavy Lift & Project Forwarding International magazine.
The next GPLN meeting will be in the Middle East region, most likely in Istanbul
or Cairo with the date and location to be set in the near future. There were
also other locations tabled by members as well which we may consider: Malta,
Dubai and Mumbai. I will come back to you later this week with another e-mail
outlining our options here and asking for your input.
Personally I believe that we will reach even greater successes with the next
meeting due to the fact that there is a lot of project cargo industry interest
specifically in the Middle East. Everybody who is anybody in the project world
is either in the Middle East already or will have business there periodically.
Additionally I think that we will have a continued interest in the next meeting
due to GPLN’s solid and rapid growth.
For those who attended I graciously thank you for your support and know that you
will see the benefit of your companies’ investment in this meeting. For those
who were not there, I would like to let you know that you should do your best to
make the next meeting. Those who made this one all got new business contacts,
got business in hand, received hot leads and made new friends. In large, this
is what the group is all about.
I hope to see you all at the next meeting!
Best regards,
Gary Dale Cearley
Executive Director
