FEDESSA conference Vilamoura, Portugal

Live to the conference! It had been a while since we could greet colleagues, associates and suppliers live again, so we were very much looking forward to that. And we were not disappointed. The interesting program and beautiful location on Portugal’s Algarve helped with that to the fullest.

Golf

Our program began on Tuesday morning with a golf morning for over 100 interested people. After which, after the last successful put, the session continued with a wine tasting and a visit to a neighboring self-storage location. Meanwhile, judging by the enthusiastic stories, everyone was thoroughly enjoying the unique setting that golfing on the Algarve entails….

USC Beach Party

USC provided the more than successful opening celebration. We were able to greet more than 100 guests on Tuesday evening, including employees of FEDESSA, friendly suppliers, prospects and highly valued customers in this fairytale setting, so right by the sea. As far as we are concerned, and our guests as well, we will make this an annual event. This year’s party had an extra festive touch. It was USC founder Peter Nemiroff’s birthday. Accordingly, he was loudly applauded.

Scholarship

We kept our good feeling during the two days of the fair. There was an interesting array of various workshops and trainings. The 650 attendees, from all corners of the world, from Portugal to Lapland, enthusiastically took advantage of that. The hospitality of the organization and the quality of the catering was at the level we have come to expect from FEDESSA.

And, despite the hustle and bustle of the conference, we occasionally took the time to glance outside. Only to realize again for a moment what a crazy place we had ended up here. Not for nothing is Vilamoura, with its old grandeur, called by some the Monaco of Portugal….

Busy booth

Our USC booth attracted a lot of interest. The professionals on site had built a very nice booth for us. We enjoyed seeing these in their full glory, also because we had spent a lot of time on the design beforehand. It was nice that the Nemiroff family had come over to see us at work and support us.

Our visitors interested in innovation were at their beck and call. In fact, we had set aside a lot of space for our innovative stacking construction, which, by the way, is currently under further development.

At the end of the conference, we had several orders in portfolio to work out floor plans for possible self-storage locations and quotes for organizations from various countries, including Iceland. And so we haven’t been there before….

USC innovation award

At the end of the second day of the exhibition, as ISS Award winner “Best container,” we were privileged to present the Universal Storage Containers innovation award.

There were four nominees beforehand; DSOC, Digital First, Izibox and Big Yellow. The winner was DSOC, an English company dedicated to developing site security, surveillance and facial recognition software.

After the usual closing at the bar, in good FEDESSA tradition late into the night, the whole circus headed home on Friday. On to the next FEDESSA conference, next year in our own Rotterdam!

Jan-Hein and Maarten Streppel