2011 Fleet Forum conference is fully booked

The 2011 event will be hosted by our partner organisation UNITAR/UNOSAT and will focus on the latest technologies and how they affect fleet and senior managers when operating in challenging and unstable environments. By addressing the core issues and developments in the area of safety, the environment and technology, the conference aims to ensure that attendees will leave the event with valuable knowledge and tools that will help them to improve their operations.

This year’s event includes sessions focusing on:

-          An update on Fleet Forum’s 2010 activities and outlook to the strategy and plans, programmes and new strategic partnerships in 2011;

-          Experiences from humanitarian organisations how technology supported them on: transport and safety, transport and efficiency and transport and environmental impact;

-          A guided case study session on humanitarian fleet management and tracking technology which aims to give a better understanding of prerequisites to derive value from satellite technology to the humanitarian and commercial fleet managers;

-          Specialised HumaNav/ Novacom technology workshop - a good example of partner initiative where public and private sector companies combine with humanitarian agencies and academia to provide an operational service for vehicle tracking, navigation and data exchange in real-time for aid and development fleets, ensuring coverage in all theatres of operation.

 

Did I mention that the happening of Fleet Forum Annual Conference is only possible due to the generous support of commercial organisations that recognise the value in supporting critical humanitarian dialogue? This year, thanks to the partnership with UNITAR/UNOSAT we have secured 15,000 USD sponsorship from the Swiss government. But still – more than a double of this amount waited to be funded from the private sector to secure the professional planning and organisation of the event.

 

So, in the beginning of the sponsorship approach (right after the new years holidays), large amount of my time in the office was spent on the phone, juggling different time zones and talking to CEOs of well known brands, trying to understand how the conference as a knowledge platform could benefit their company Fleet Management process. I need to admit that it was quite difficult once again for me to put myself into a position where I am not granting sponsorship but requesting it. I was very happy though that my previous experience as a telesales and indoor sales representative at TNT Bulgaria in combination with my communications skills helped me a lot with the completion of that task.

 

It was a really good experience and a reward for me to manage to get companies like Toyota Gibraltar, RMA Group, Overseas Lease Group, EMS Global Tracking and etc “on board”. Even in an economic crisis they were still very responsive and generous and made this event and its special features like the INSEAD tracking case possible to happen.

So, in the beginning of March it turned out that we have already more than 80 people registered and the event is fully booked! I even needed to officially close the registration process via our website as more and more late comers were trying to sign-up for the conference!

We managed to achieve a good mix between representatives from aid & development agencies, commercial sector, academia and donors who, I am very impatient to personally meet in Geneva in less than 2 weeks time!

 

In the mean time I will enjoy the cozy and bright atmosphere of our new Green Head Office, called TNT Centre, where we moved to just a couple of days ago. I even participated in the “10 Golden Agreements” movie, showing in a funny way what people should do and not do in the new nice and open office environment.

 

Read my next blog if you want to experience my “real time” impressions of contacting all this variety of people during the conference sessions’ and networking events, as I will be reporting live from Geneva, right after the last day of the event!