Swine flu, civil unrest, global financial crises and visa nightmares can’t prevent the WCA Family’s networking events from becoming the ‘must attend’ opportunities of the year. THE last year has seen the WCA Family of Logistic Networks overcome a plethora of challenges to provide its members with the largest and most important networking events in the industry. Working with new partners and adding benefits and business opportunities for all attendees has helped enhance the global appeal of the conferences, which are set to be bigger and better than ever in 2010. In May 2008, the WCA Family and China International Freight Forwarders Association (CIFA) were putting the finishing touches to for the eagerly awaited 5th Sino-International Freight Forwarders Conference in Shanghai. A record 1,500 delegates had registered for the week of One-On-One scheduled meetings and hospitality networking events in the largest gathering of independent freight forwarders ever staged. Then, with just six weeks to go, the Chinese government brought in new restrictions on visa applications and approvals due to the demands of the Beijing summer Olympics. Reacting rapidly to the challenge the WCA Family and CIFA sourced a new location in Hong Kong, put all the necessary infrastructure together, helped rearrange the travel plans for attendees and provided first-class accommodation and facilities for what turned out to be an outstandingly successful event. If the hurdles overcome to put on such a large event at short notice seem daunting, the organisation of the WCA Family Week in Bangkok in February 2009 proved equally challenging. A new larger venue had been selected for the event as the membership’s appetite for attendance demanded a bigger arena. In addition, a joint-venture with Air Cargo Media brought an adjacent exhibition and conference to the venue, opening up new opportunities for networking with senior airline, airport and logistics providers. However, on 25 November 2008 Bangkok was thrown into turmoil when the People’s Alliance for Democracy (PAD) party invaded and occupied the main Suvarnabhumi airport, bringing travel chaos to thousands of passengers, the cancellation of hundreds of flights and bringing the country’s tourist industry to its knees. With fears of further action bringing the WCA Family Week into jeopardy, the situation was monitored closely and member’s fears alleviated as the situation slowly improved. At the same time a new crisis emerged with global trade ‘falling off a cliff’ as the global financial meltdown hit logistics disproportionately hard. Yet despite Bangkok continuing to receive negative press coverage and companies reining back on travel plans to save costs, over 1,000 WCA Family members congregated to do business – 6th Annual Sino-International Freight Forwarders Conference 2009 again proving the importance of the event to the independent agent. In March 2009, as the financial situation in the global freight business deteriorated, the planning for the 6th Sino-International Conference was well underway. The event was to be held at the AWE venue that proved so successful in 2009, yet a new challenge emerged at this time that threw the whole conference into jeopardy. The diagnosis of swine flu in Mexico prompted the WHO to issue a warning that a global pandemic could arise. By May 16,000 cases had been identified around the world affecting business gatherings, communication and travel, particularly in Asia. On 11 June a Phase 6 global pandemic was announced by the WHO, yet CIFA and WCA Family, following a thorough risk assessment, elected to continue with the event. This proved to be an inspired decision. Despite the financial meltdown and swine flu fears, almost 1,000 attendees benefited from the unique new business opportunities on offer. Against all the odds the worldwide community of independent forwarders made the effort to attend these conferences, braved the difficulties and held their precious meetings. But why do these people do this? The reasons are best summed up by Mr. John Achu, CEO of Central African Shipping who said shortly after the conference that he was, “very satisfied after attending the Against all odds! AUG 21 2009 SERVING THE INDEPENDENT FREIGHT FORWARDING COMMUNITY No.004 David L Yokeum, President WCA Family of Logistic Networks Ltd. WCA Family conference as it was very successful for my business. Just to imagine that about 1,500 freight forwarders came together under a single roof to sell and buy services. On top of this the networking that was accomplished at one location will go a long way to save us money in our accounts that would have been spent on travelling and accommodation expenditures to carry out the same transaction in the entire international freight market”. It is clear that attending the WCA Family conferences allows individuals and companies to improve themselves and their business, taking pride in growing their knowledge and expertise to better facilitate their clients and customers. By meeting together once or, even better, twice a year the independents get the opportunity to meet new partners, strengthen existing relationships, expand their geographical networks, discuss current industry topics and trends and stay on top of developments and new regulations. This allows them to achieve their ultimate goal – to provide the best possible service to new and existing customers – the shippers and consignees of the world. All Pages_issue4_ACNedit.indd 1 10/08/2009 05:28:10 PM