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Starting from the hard figures, unofficial sources report that around
1,100 participants were in evidence at that big New Delhi FIATA World
Congress that closed its doors Sunday September 29.
These numbers speak of success; if we look
at the program we see a good mix of old and new and the topics discussed
were surely such as to attract the interest of the professionals of the
sector.
We have read and heard in these pages that
the hitch with the visas had affected even the President of FIATA, but
despite the fact that Babar Badat of Pakistan had to direct FIATA from
Karachi, all went well under his firm guidance.
Virtual Reality
Thinking about conferences and the dust
up with FIATA President Badat, fair to say at the end of the day, in 2018
we live in a world where virtual is almost as good as real.
The FIATA World Congress 2018 motto was
“the future starts here”, so a little extra tech should not
be considered too negatively in this case.
Meetings
Bonanza
The official program featured more than
21 official meetings, which were surrounded, preceded and followed by
a number of ad-hoc networking meetings and specialized gatherings that
only concern those members who are part of a particular body or a certain
initiative, e.g. the validation meetings only concern the associations
that are presenting their training programs, either for the first time
or to obtain revalidation, where FIATA requires them to ensure that their
training program is up to date.
IATA-FIATA
Program
A number of meetings took place before the
official event got underway and continued until the early days of October.
For example, the AFI crew were busy after
the Congress to further discuss the requirements of the IATA-FIATA Air
Cargo Program.
At the time of writing this report, we have
no information on this meeting, which is so crucial for the airfreight
sector, but we did hear through the grapevine that not all of the complexities
have been ironed out.
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Young International Freight
Forwarders Award
From certain points of view, September 25th
was however the day that mattered most to both FIATA World Congress attendees
in New Delhi and also the four finalists of the Young International Freight
Forwarder of the Year Award (YIFFA).
Each candidate is required to submit a 6,000
word dissertation outlining an import and export shipment from their native
country. The four regional finalists are then invited to attend the World
Congress to present their dissertations in person to a panel of judges
that FIATA puts together every year in cooperation with the TTClub (https://www.ttclub.com/).
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Everyone Is A Winner
On this occasion the overall winner, Louis
Perrin of Hemisphere Freight representing BIFA (UK) was joined by the
three other regional finalists Tjaka Segooa representing SAAFF(South Africa),
Kendyl Baptiste representing CIFFA(Canada) and Sarah Skrypec representing
CBFCA (Australia) .
As an organization committed to encouraging
the highest standards of best practice in the freight industry, specialist
insurance provider TT Club has been supporting the award through its sponsorship
for all of its twenty-year history.
The award winner gets to attend two one-week
training sessions with the TT Club at one of their regional headquarters
in London, New Jersey or Hong Kong.
Top Notch
Dreamers & Doers
Consensus of thought amongst folks at the
show was that the presentations were excellent, but in particular this
year’s YIFFA overall winner Louis Perrin gave the impression to
care about his freight forwarding mission with such passion that he overruled
the undeniably excellent competitors.
About
The Finalists
Kendyl Baptiste from Canada represented
CIFFA. She could not travel to Delhi, as she is actually busy becoming
a mother.
We asked her whether we could mention her
pregnancy and this is her reply:
“My hobbies and interests: I like
to keep active by working out and playing fast pitch softball.
“I've been an athlete my whole life
playing competitive softball and hockey.
“I played varsity hockey as a goalie
for 2 years when I attended the University of Toronto.
“I enjoy spending time with my family
and dog Lola.
“In the summer time we go camping
on the weekends to escape the city and enjoy the outdoors.”
In other words, the child will have to run
if he or she has to keep pace with this athletic mother.
Region Africa and Middle East was represented
by Tjaka Segooa.
She made quite a surprising analogy between
logistics and the Rubiks Cube, i.e. if all elements are not in place the
six sides of the cube will not appear in the correct manner, just as the
goods would not show up at destination as they should.
Sarah Kate Skrypec, who has now been a mother
for a little more than four months, not only managed to give birth to
a wonderful, promisingly curious baby girl, but also to surprise all judges
by the level of her dissertation.
Louis Perrin Overall
Winner
Louis, we are told, is a big cricket fan
and sports fan in general. He recently proposed to his girlfriend (pictured
with him) in the summer on a holiday in Italy. Plans are made for them
to get married in Sorrento in 2020.
One can only just wonder how many other
awards and trophies this young gentleman will have assembled by then .
. .
And we may not forget that Louis works for
a family company, where his father, Andy (pictured here) was the owner
and Louis took over from his Dad.
This
is really a good example in a sector where very many companies are and
remain family businesses.
Louis Perrin has clear ideas about the future:
in the next five years he wants to take his company to the next level
by investing in innovative technology.
Difficult to say whether Louis managed to
emerge the winner in the end by showing a degree of passion for his work
that inflamed the hearts of the jury.
All four contenders where on the highest
level of knowledge and performance:
I think the judges must have had a headache
deciding.
Next Generation
Comes Alive
My view is that It is really a great comfort
for those who have worked in this business and are getting older that
they are being followed by such talented individuals, keeping the flame
high and alive.
Huxiang Zhao, FIATA’s Immediate Past
President (replacing President Babar Badat, who as reported was unexpectedly
prevented from participating in New Delhi, when India refused to grant
the FIATA President & Pakistan national a Visa), presented the final
trophy for the global winner at the gala dinner.
Training
For Tomorrow
FIATA says “the future sustainability
of professional standards of skill and knowledge in the global freight
forwarding community depend on training and motivation of the young recruits
to the industry.
For twenty years FIATA has maintained its
efforts to nurture such talent through its annual Young International
Freight Forwarder of the Year campaign.”
Moving Forward
In a unique and inclusive move, FIATA Director
General, Hans Guenther Kersten announced that FIATA is planning to establish
a network of former finalists of the YIFFA Award to keep contact and create
a "talent pool" aimed at generating and sharing new ideas and
innovation to FIATA and its members.
Hans Guenther observed that “bringing
these young folks together can benefit transportation now and in the future."
Next FIATA World Congress set October 1st-5th,
2019 in Cape Town.
Marco Sorgetti
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