In The Event TIACA Blossoms

Editor's Note: The major takeaway from all of the cargo events centers on what we heard from the always astute and varied group of remarkable executives, who either attended only some of the them or, like us, were present for them all.
     In 2014 there are two schools of thought about air cargo events:
     One thought is that there are simply too many air cargo trade shows; the other is that too much is never enough.
     We fall somewhere in between those two sentiments.
     For us at least, there is always an interview or speech that changes everything and makes us glad we heard it.

I couldn’t agree more: there are too many events, and perhaps too little quality. The funny thing about our industry is that it reminds me of sport: have you ever wondered why teams (or individuals) have winning streaks, followed by losing streaks? Don’t the latter always follow a sudden – or not so sudden – loss of confidence?
     There is plenty of evidence of loss of confidence in the industry today: freighters parked in the desert, heads of cargo rolling, cargo being integrated back into passenger hierarchies, and, yes, the perennial – and totally absurd – retreat from contractual relationships (aimed at win-win) to transactional, adhoc pricing (from shipper to forwarder and from forwarder to airline) which commoditizes and trivializes all the wonderful efforts we make to provide quality and reliability.
     That is the downward spiral, leading to losses, which in turn make CEOs and entire organizations look inward and forget the customer, let alone new opportunities.

Time To Look Up & Out

      I say there is no better time and no more urgent task than to look outward, to learn from our environment (competitors, suppliers, customers, regulators, observers, entrepreneurs, creators).
     It is never somebody else’s job, it is up to us, the industry leaders to make a difference, to stop that downward spiral, to make us a driver of change and not a victim of change.

TIACA October Fest In Seoul

     TIACA has a unique role to play in this, being the association that brings together all the various stakeholder groups of the industry: not to take away from the valiant efforts and achievements of IATA, FIATA, etc, but to build upon them and help to knit them together.
     The TIACA Air Cargo Forum, held every 2 years in major cargo hubs, is just around the corner.
     We have a great array of speakers for the plenary sessions, with the top officials of ICAO, WCO, UPU. We are expecting lively debate in the workshops, as we had in Istanbul at the Executive Summit.
     And we are building on the excellent initiative of IATA in conducting follow-up sessions of the Cargo Executive Summit and the Future Air Cargo Executive Summit (FACES).
     It promises to be a great event.
     Be there.

Oliver Evans
TIACA Chairman