PAIMA held its annual convention and general assembly from 2-4 October - immediately before IAM.

Lars Lemche from Teamwork opened the conference for the first time as PAIMA president with a minute of silence for Indonesia and its people who suffered so much in the recent earthquake and resultant tsunami.  Following the roll call, Executive Director Antonio Tremols welcomed the attendees, including the 15 attending new members to the organisation’s annual event.  He said that the programme has been compiled to give as much networking time as possible.

The programme included a golf tournament, that has now become a regular feature of PAIMA conferences, a cocktail reception on the first evening, a group excursion (including a karaoke competition) on a yacht cruising up the Potomac river, one-to-one meetings (IMC style) and a closing party in keeping with PAIMA’s reputation for knowing how to have a good time.

The guest speaker was Ray daSilva who provided his opinion of today’s market.  He said it was a challenging market and put some of the blame on US military for the global seasonality of the moving industry.  This was why many companies found it difficult to invest in their businesses.  He said that if the US military was able to shift just 10% of its work out of season it would make a huge difference.

But Ray spent most of his time explaining the IAMX Mobility Exchange and the new IAM Learning programme.  IAMX Mobility Exchange he described as ‘An infrastructure on which we can build so many things’.  “It’s a common resource,” he said.  The concept being that it’s a database of everyone and every company in the industry that is validated so that it can be relied upon as being accurate.  Then he made a promise: “We are now going to promote it to consumers, corporate and government accounts.”

IAMX relies on cooperation between all players in the industry.  It was part of a trend.  As an example, he explained the PCGs (Professional Cooperation Guidelines) created by FIDI but shared with IAM and the rest of the industry for the benefit of all.  But Ray said that none of their initiatives were any good if companies didn’t participate.  He urged everyone to do so.  Maybe not with everything, but to do just one thing at a time.  If people participate they will benefit from exponential growth and be successful.

The PAIMA conference is a friendly, quiet, relaxing get-together for friends and colleagues.  Being immediately before IAM it’s very much the calm before the storm.

Photos
Top: It was a record turnout of over 150 attendees illustrating the Association's growth in recent years.
Middle: Lars Lemche, PAIMA President
Bottom: The programme included a golf tournament, cocktail reception, yacht cruise and karaoke, one-to-one meetings and a closing party.

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