Open Room - News

A hat trick for the third Fuel Distribution Forum!

Last week, a group of high-level fuel distributors and suppliers came together in the Algarve for the third Fuel Distribution Forum.  Delegates gathered under blue Portuguese skies for a day-and-a-half of conference, one-to-one meetings and networking.

The mood was relaxed yet business-like with more than half of the delegates attending the Forum for the first time.  Said newcomer Mark Andrews of Crown Oil: “Having been sceptical about the event, I found it to be a success, even placing an order with one of the suppliers on the day.  It was good to be able to meet so many industry-related contacts over just two days.”

The opening conference, chaired by David Fairchild of The WP Group, was brought to a close with an inspirational session from Wilfred Emmanuel Jones – aka The Black Farmer who set a positive, upbeat tone for the event.

OpenRoom’s unique appointments program moved into action on day two, with just over 400 formal business meetings and countless informal introductions.  “It would have taken us months to meet the same number of companies.  The buyers were very open and curious to understand what we had to offer, so from a business development perspective, we liked the set-up” said Josefine Ahlström of Argus Media.  And from Hannah Lord at Aztec Oils: “I was very impressed with the format.  I have been to a lot of conferences where you feel time is wasted, but the speed meetings enabled an excellent introduction in a compact time allotment, with lots of time for networking around it.”

Distributor companies were equally positive.  Said David Kay of Manx Petroleum: “The event puts us in touch with companies that would not normally consider the Isle of Man as a place to do business.  It is also great to catch up with so many old friends, make new friends and find out what is happening in the industry.”

One final comment from Neil Ryding of Fuel Additive Science Technologies sums up the truly intangible benefit of the Forum: “The event as a whole served to break down traditional supplier-customer barriers.  The 15-minute face-to-face is just long enough (a) to make a pitch to people whom you’ve never met before and (b) to enhance relationships with existing contacts.”

The next Fuel Distribution Forum will run back-to-back with PetroForum, the UK’s leading petrol retail event, in June 2014.

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