Under the motto Opening Doors to a New Future, the 38th IELA Congress took place in Malta last June 28th until July 1st 2023, followed by the 10th edition of the IELA Partnering Event on July 1st & 2nd.
This second event is the only IELA event open to non-members and it is an introduction to the Association and an almost compulsory step before one company can join the association. In addition to the 231 delegates from 109 IELA Member companies from 42 countries attending the IELA Congress, the 2023 IELA Partnering Event welcomed 82 non-member experts from 23 countries, six of which are white spot countries where IELA has no current members.
The IELA Congress is the annual flagship event of the International Exhibition Logistics Association. It is a mix of socialising, sharing knowledge, networking and strengthening business relationships amongst its members.
This year’s Congress began with the Induction Meeting during which five new IELA Members were welcomed into the association and received their Membership Certificates from Bas Wiendels, IELA Vice Chairperson:
- King Cargo Projects (PTY) LTD, South Africa,
- Panda Logistics Co., Ltd., Taiwan,
- PRO Messe-Service GmbH, Germany,
- Rangel Invest S.A., Portugal,
- Sonigo International Shipping, Packing & Moving Ltd., Israel.
The main strength of the IELA Congress is the opportunity to network allowing participants to create new partnerships and intensify global connections. Through a combination of pre-arranged meetings, informal networking moments, morning sports sessions and numerous other engagements, the doors were opened for attendees for remarkable collaboration and advancement.
The annual IELA General Assembly was as usual on the event agenda. The IELA Membership elected three Board Members for a 2-year term:
One New BOM Member:
- Dirk Urra – Kuehne + Nagel (AG & Co.) KG – KN Expo & Event Logistics, Germany
Two Re-elected BOM Members:
- Sudhir Dhavan – R.E. Rogers India Pvt. Ltd., India
- Bas Wiendels – Valverde B.V., The Netherlands (Also re-elected as IELA Vice-Chairperson during the Post-Event Board Meeting)
All three will form the 2023-2024 IELA Board of Management together with the following BOM Members remaining for one more year:
- IELA 2022-2024 Chairperson Sandi Trotter – TWI Group Inc., Canada
- Orphee Moschopoulos Beinoglou Junior – Orphee Beinoglou International Forwarders S.A., Greece
- Alexandra Erdmann – Swiss Expo Logistics Ltd., Switzerland
- Lucien Lawson – Clamageran Foirexpo, France
- Daniel Mithran – Jim Project & Expo Logistics (M) Sdn. Bhd, Malaysia
- Jasmine Yang – Eurotran Expo Service Co. Ltd., Taiwan
The conference delegates were enthusiastic to hear the contributions of two Keynote Speakers at the Congress. It was enlightening to hear from Will Bowen on How to turn complainers into Collaborators and Eve Novikova went into the art of Mastering Your Mind and Creating the Life you Deserve.
ISLA’s representative, Anna Abdelnoor and Alex Camacho, were invited guests to facilitate a roundtable on Net Zero Carbon Events and how the event logistics suppliers can join the journey to NZCE.
One of the key sessions of the event was the Future of IELA, during which the delegates brainstormed about the next steps for the IELA Membership development, the on-going project of the payments system, the IELA Standards, and the improvement of future IELA Events.
During the 2023 IELA Congress, the five Working Groups presented an important part of the content by introducing their efforts over the last year with their 2022-2023 achievements and organising brainstorming sessions to define their 2023-2024 action plans.
