In this bonus episode, we provide a comprehensive recap of Day 1 of the PARCEL Forum '25, highlighting the significant discussions and insights garnered throughout the day. Our co-hosts, Nick Agnetti and Jason Rowland, delve into the critical conversations surrounding the international logistics industry. Noteworthy discussions included a session with Mike McComb of Green Mountain Technology, which illuminated areas for e-commerce providers to enhance their service delivery and accountability to customers, as well as insights from Chas Gorham of International Bridge, and Tom Foley of Asendia USA, who addressed the complexities of parcel delivery to non-continental United States locations.

Hey everybody. Welcome to a Parcel Forum Day 1 recap episode from Outside the Box with Asendia USA podcast.

I am Nick Agnetti, Jason Rowland and we are going to recap day one of Parcel Forum where the day's winding down. The time is going slowly though, and here we are.

This is Outside the Box with Asendia usa, the podcast educating US based brands, marketplaces and e tailers on international shipping topics and how they can expand their global e commerce footprint.

Yeah, you know what though? I think we did a lot of great, great discussions here today.

I think the session with Green Mountain, I think was, was a great way to get started and going into how providers and carriers can do better and where they can do better.

And I think that kind of information is, is great not only for customers but for, for other carriers too, because it really kind of brings everybody to the same level, kind of levels the playing field for carriers like us and, and, and other competitors that are out there because it really holds, holds us accountable to our sla, right? Holds us big time for what we've committed to our customers. And I think that can go a long way.

So, yeah, I think it was, you know, as for me, from my side of the house, on the legal risk and compliance side, these events are not things we usually get exposed to, but those kinds of discussions are great.

And I think the work we've done here today really kind of gets us India's name out there, it gets our partners names out there and gives people a great platform to put their information out that they want everyone to know.

Jason, I love it. Good, good recap for you. And you're right, you don't do trade shows often at all. So, so what do you think though? And about the show?

Yeah, I mean, I haven't had a chance to go to many of the speeches and events sessions other than the Open Forum here, but it's really interesting to watch these people go through the motions of like setting up and getting everything ready and just it's a little production show for them and you know, it's for terms of them and representing their companies and the sales, it's, it's a huge production. And what.

Just watching this thing grow from being empty this morning to what it is now full of people and all these exhibits, it's, it's amazing to watch it happen. So.

Yeah.

Yeah.

So for me, having not really experienced that before, it's certainly been interesting and I look forward to, you know, maybe doing more of these because I think that level of collaboration and discussion between not only customer to vendor, but vendor to vendor I think is something really important. And it's worked out really well. I'm glad we were able to do this.

But what I would say is, for a recap is we're looking at, it's a ton of carriers, ton of logistics focused carriers. And then we've got a lot of parcel spend management, we've got a ton of automation vendors.

I have seen some AI vendors, we've got some shipping insurance.

And then on the automation side, it kind of ranges from, you know, simple carrier systems to really advanced and robust tms, you know, inventory management, all those things, OMS systems, et cetera. I think, you know, for anybody that's in the logistics space, I think probably both B2B and B2C, it's a worthwhile visit. Sure.

Depending upon what you're looking for.

And yeah, I think that you have a captive, you have a somewhat captive audience and it gives you an opportunity to, to speak with, you know, not only shippers and brands, but there's a lot of vendors like I mentioned as well. So in. I forgot to even mention too, there's a ton of 3PL fulfillment businesses that are here as well.

Yeah, it really, you don't really understand going into it, what goes into logistics.

Right.

It's all these different. Every company here in one way or another touches mail, they touch parcel.

Whether it's the fulfillment, you know, or a sorting technology or scanning technology or whatever it is, every, all of us are here because we're all in the same industry. Right. So, yep, that's. It's the number of ways that these companies interact with that volume is crazy.

So, yeah, it's amazing to see the amount that goes into logistics and how these trade shows work and the number of companies that touch things in one way or another. But through the work of everybody that's here, you know, everything keeps moving.

Yeah, I agree. And so, yeah, so I, I think, you know, this is probably my, I want to say maybe my sixth parcel forum. This one is.

This one looks really good, but I think this one has been. We've had some good conversations. We recorded a couple great episodes here today with some great guests.

We had, like you mentioned Green Mountain, which is fascinating. Liking all the different things that they do and focus on.

I find that the, the more I listen to Mike talk, the more I realize what an effective partner they are in the space. Absolutely. Then we also had Chas from International Bridge on talking about non continental US Puerto Rico, Hawaii and Alaska parcels.

Another very interesting conversation with a lot of stuff that I just, I was not aware of. So I learned a ton with that. Yeah.

And things that can really bring, you know, I think competitive savings to our customers and our customer base.

Knowing as little as I knew about International Bridge going into it, to hear how they've kind of created that niche for themselves in the market and what they're able to provide and just beat SLAs from other, other, other vendors is, is amazing to see what they put together. So yeah, it was great to sit down with, with him and, and Chas and have that discussion and learn more about them.

So yeah, I'm excited to, to see how that partnership continues to grow for some of you.

Yeah, me too. So overall, day one, big success. A lot of good things, a lot of good conversations. That's it for today. I think it was a great day.

Glad to be here if you are, you know, if you didn't get a chance to attend and you still want to connect and talk about how we can help when it comes to, or how to improve your business when it comes to cross border deliveries, international parcels. Love to have that conversation.

Yeah, yeah. Thanks a lot for doing the sessions here today and thanks for joining, joining us and, and we'll see you again tomorrow when we do day two.

Yes, we will. All right, see you then.

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