9,000 meetings in three days: if each of the 300 delegates conducted 30 meetings, the final count would be 9,000 (or 4,500 if we assume that although there are two people, there was only one meeting), which is a lot but not as many as the 15,000 announced by the organizers.

Some African agents could not obtain their visas: half a dozen African agents couldn’t attend, despite having express invitations from the APB, because the Spanish authorities would not grant them visas, explained Gerard Akpakoun from Benin.

FREIGHT FORWARDERS: LAST WEEK, THE WORLD TRADE CENTER AT THE CATALAN PORT WELCOMED THE FIRST SINO-EUROPEAN FREIGHT FORWARDERS CONFERENCE

BARCELONA AND THE STRENGTH OF SINO
For the organizers, (WCA Family and the CIFA, the China Freight Forwarders Association) it certainly will have been an absolute success.Without doubt, the same applies for host and sponsor, the Port of Barcelona.In order to arrive at a somewhat reliable judgement about the first Sino-European Conference, held last week in Barcelona, the only way is to ask the actual participants, that is to say, the forwarders that invested their time and money with the expectation that the fruits of that investment turn out to be more than just a visit to a beautiful and sunny Mediteranean city.

Wednesday at noon I stand in the Agora Room of Barcelona’s World Trade Center where the bustle of one-on-one meetings amongst cargo agents of every nationality continues, mostly Europeans and Asians, all those within my sight wearing name badges under their necks.I notice no stress on any of the faces but many loose ties and without jackets.You have to make yourself comfortable. The participants conduct between twenty and thirty formal meetings and an indeterminate number of informal ones by their third day of work in Barcelona. I ask them if they have achieved their objective and I receive 100% positive responses. It is clear that the format is enjoyable, and it works.

My first approach fails: a man excuses himself because he is about to start a meeting. The next one is a success. A Dutchman by the name of Inver Gase, director of Viking Transport, grants me a few minutes despite that he too is about to start a meeting.He praises the event because it allows him to meet a lot of people without having to travel from country to country and because of the selected venue, repeated later without exception by all those I interviewed. Gase explains that “the real business will begin when I return home and I can choose from among those I met with” and that the least beneficial meetings had been with the Chinese agents. “They all ask for the same thing: that you generate more and more cargo. But we are not so interested in big volumes. We have come here to find reliable partners that provide good service”.

The plastic holder that contains Gase’s name badge swells with business cards that he has collected. It can’t be less than thirty, more or less the number of meetings the rest of those I interviewed told me they will have had by the close of the event. The goal, according to two of the participants, is a win-win scenario in which both parties benefit.

Amongst the chaos I continue to seek insights from westerners working for Asian agents and viceversa. All favorable, in spite of my vain attempt to find criticism. Before I know it there is nobody left in the Agora Room: everyone has gone to lunch. I turn and leave while I remember the words of David Yokeum, the president of WCA Family, at Monday’s presentation: “Money is important, but knowing with whom you are working is more important”.

IMPRESSIONS
Kuo Wei Huang, Asia Routing Manager of MBS Speditionsgesellshaft, Germany- “we are leaving Barcelona happy as we were able to meet many people with whom we already work and many new ones”.

Devasheesh Sharma, VP of Transpole Logistics, India- “now comes two months to firm up the contacts, but for now the meeting has given me new business ideas”.

Gerard Akpakoun, Assistant GM of Lemoine& Cie, Benin- “an oil company has named us as their representatives in West Africa which demontrates how we have taken advantage of our time here”.

David Rizzo, Director of Zephyr Logistics, China- “I have been at many conferences and this has been excellent. I have closed a few deals and I have met some people I only knew via e-mail”.
Soonhae Cho, Sales Manager, Fast Forward Freight, Holland and Belgium- “The most interesting thing is meeting people in person because from then on, the type of relationship with these partners changes a lot”.

Alan Chan, Managing Director of Transitop Logistics, China-“ There are no filters here. You meet good people and not-so-good people. But if out of 25 meetings 4 produce something, I consider it successful”.