Stronger together
As the doors closed on this year’s IFSA Expo, Julie Baxter, talked to IFSA presidents Jane Bernier-Tran (out-going) and Paul Platamone.
The mood was buoyant at IFSA Expo 2017 following a range of initiatives to make the event stronger. Jane Bernier-Tran, president during the event, explained:
“The show went well and feedback has been good. Investment in the hard shell build for the stands gave the show a more professional feel and the layout worked well. The show is not too large, or overwhelming and that means buyers have a chance to visit all booths and have meaningful conversations. It is now sizable enough to justify attendance, with a good variety of suppliers but manageable enough that delegates can get around to see everyone they need to, easily. We had a record-breaking number of booths, conference registrations were up and IFSA member numbers are also up. The number of airlines attending has also increased.
Our Compass Awards excited people and provided a nice evening to kick off the event and our networking social was also very well attended, and great fun.”
Both Jane and in-coming president,
Paul Platamone, praised the on-going collaboration and co-location of the IFSA, APEX and AIX expos and Paul said: "We are hyper-focused on making this annual event a collaboration of the three entities. APEX Association has been a not-for-profit association for its sector for 40 years and IFSA is in is 52nd year. We have shared space with the AIX exhibitors in the past too and bringing all three together is clearly an excellent development that we will continue to build on.
“It is no coincidence that APEX and
IFSA now have a common ceo in Joe
Leader and we intend this collaboration to continue across much of what we do. We now have a structure in place to transcend any given board of directors, it is a foundational structure that will maintain the current agreement to schedule our activities in tandem. This is a big deal, we are all going to come together in mutually agreed locations for a number of years to come and that will be to the benefit of us all. We are absolutely stronger together as an industry, it’s what our members want us to do, and it will enable ties to grow. It strengthens us all.
“Beyond the Expos we are going to continue a huge focus on government activities, on the regulatory environment in which we all work. Regulations on both sides of the pond have become increasingly complex and potentially unmanageable and aggressive. We have taken a long-standing position on these issues through our GACT committee and work to retain our industry’s reputation in the market. We have retained resources in Brussels with an EU taskforce that ensures we are tuned into the regulatory channels there and can try and help our industry navigate that sphere. This has been especially important since the void emerged with the decline of ITCA.”