News Details

The WFA Focus - Special Edition     Mira Hmoud    WFA AGM 2009 - Sao Paulo On the 20th of October, the steering committee meeting was held, the attendees of the meeting were: Sven Nordin , Safwan Tannir , Piet Verdonck , Tommy Kelly, Elmen Chu, Mike Scott, John Hickey, Pedro Faria , Miroslav Zolotarev, Jean-Marc Lambrechts , Heinz Lange , Maggy So , and Mira Hmoud. Many vital issues were discussed in this meeting, and many decisions and recommendations came out of it. The most major topics were: the WFA tracking system which is being enhanced, and is now completely re-hosted with Team Work Technology– Sweden, for the World Freight Alliance. The system on Team Work server will be soon the official and live site for the alliance. Hakan Lundmark from Team Work Technology is the technical support contact from Team Work Technology. And Mira Hmoud is the owner and administrator of the system. We are putting time, effort, and money to host the WFA tracking system on neutral servers. Enhance it to become more user friendly and used by all WFA members, in order to be a reliable system for our network that contains all the data we need. Moreover, to use it as a sales tool with potential customers and leads, and to present ourselves to all freight players as a high-tech competitive network. It is for sure very crucial that each and every WFA member uses the WFA T&T either through manual data entry or through EDI solutions. Another major topic was the WFA expansion, which has been put on the priority list for the 2010 plan. As a start, we will use the WFA members’ recommendations and connections to explore potential members in vital countries where there’s no WFA coverage. A progress in this area was the assignment of a new WFA member (Access Freight Group) to represent the alliance in South Africa. Please visit wfalliance.com for full address and contact details. Moreover, (Grupo Cointer) was very newly assigned to represent the network in Colombia. All office and contact info will be posted on wfalliance.com very soon. Welcome aboard Access Freight & Grupo Cointer! Details about the 2 new WFA members will be presented in the next edition of the WFA Focus. Another vital topic discussed by the steering committee was the New vitalized board structure and board work, we will soon be updating you on this topic in detail. Welcome reception took place in the evening; caipirinha was absolutely the most popular and enjoyable drink! On the 21st of October, Sven Nordin started the AGM and welcomed the WFA family. Then the AGM guest speaker, Mr. Luiz Roberto Carnier, the coordinator of MBA course at Fundação Getulio Vargas, the best Management and Economy University in Latin Amercia, gave us an overview about Foreign Trade & Brazilian Market. This was followed by presentations by Pedro Vidal about TransAirCargo-Chile & Enrique Cosentino about B&B Cargo-Argentina. You can find the 3 presentations on wfalliance.com Mike Scott directed the AGM participants and briefed them on the AGM program. Six workshops were held: 1- WFA Membership led by Tommy Kelly & Mike Scott 2- Success in Latin America led by John Hickey 3- Growing Ocean Freight Services led by Jim Armour 4- The WFA Track & Trace led by Mira Hmoud & Hakan Lundmark from TeamWork Technology 5- Marketing Your Company led by Jean-Marc Lambrechts 6- Enabling Non-Traditional Customer Growth led by Andy Harris In the evening, it was the PGL-hosted dinner at Barbacua, where we enjoyed the yummiest lip-smacking food and the fabulous caipirinha. There was something about that dinner.... the atmosphere was great... non-stop eating... non-stop laughing... and non-stop drinking! Bilaterals continued the next day. Then a follow-up SC meeting was held to recap and compare what has been decided in the first meeting with the ideas and opinions shared and exchanged by the WFA members in the workshops and bilaterals. In the evening, we enjoyed an amazing cocktail reception, which was followed by the WFA group dinner. Countless special moments were marked during this dinner, Sven Nordin handed the Quality of Service Award & the Most Active Member Award to Safwan Tannir for Aramex Middle East/Indian Subcontinent. And the Sales Award to Marco Klaassen for Aramex Europe. Tommy Kelly expressed gratitude to Sven for his 2 great years of chairmanship. And thanked John Hickey on behalf of everyone for his amazing hospitality. Safwan Tannir also expressed gratefulness to Sven and surprised him with the Swedish t-shirt he was wearing under his shirt! Another very special moment was when the steering committee showed all the appreciation to Frank Ulens, who was a very important member of the WFA being a founder of the alliance, board and steering committee member. Tommy Kelly explained to the whole crowd how Frank dedicated much of his time, effort, and money to the WFA since the very beginning. The steering committee gave Frank’s gift of appreciation to Piet Verdonck as Frank could not make it to SAO.