EPCA 2007 has come to an end. The dance is over. Dustballs blow through the deserted lobby of the Berlin Interconti, and the Blog has returned home to catch up on sleep and compare notes.
How was it for you? Do you have any idea who all those business cards were from? Are you facing a hefty dry-cleaning bill and wondering if your feet will ever fit back into those shoes?
For me, the conference has thrown up some interesting questions. Is it ever acceptable to fall asleep during a speech? At least three people told me they had fallen asleep during Prof Michael Porter's speech at the EPCA Luncheon. One was at my table, but I swear none of us noticed. It reminded me of the last ICIS Aromatics Conference, where I had to slip in quietly at the back during one speech, and noticed that one guy was asleep, one guy was leaning back in his chair reading the newspaper, and all the traders in the back row were busily texting each other on their Blackberries.
I am indebted to the Blog's trader friends for further conference thoughts. These are inspired by Private Eye's "Scenes You Seldom See" cartoon series.
Top 5 Things you won't hear a chemicals producer/trader/shipper say:
1 I really like this combined shipping and trading conference idea.
2 Let's go back to Berlin again - I hate Monte Carlo.
3 What we need in this business is more brokers.
4 Don't forget to send me that demurrage bill.
5 I can't wait to get back on that Riverwalk.
Any more conference insights? Feel free to post them below - click on "Comments".
Sorry Barbara, I have to confess, of the five things you thought you would not hear at EPCA, only one of them may be partly true. That's the last one, the Riverwalk. And I say only partly true because I have not been to NPRA every year!!
Everyone else I met in my frantic 5 days spell in Berlin makes me think that NOBODY wants to go back to boring Monaco.
The combined event was GREAT. It worked better than last year because there was so much room to spread out. God help us when we have to return to Monaco and the sloppy service at the Grand. And when we all have to share exactly the same restaurant for our lunches/dinners, only to find the table next to us occupied by our competitors, forcing the topic of discussion away from business to more mundane small-talk. Expensive small-talk at that.
Thank heavens for brokers is all I can say
Demurrage bill? Most people wouldn't recognise one because they rarely pay them!!!
ah EPCA!
I must confess that my thoughts did drift off (in between the nappy changes), to what everybody was probably getting up to in Berlin last weekend..good to see that little changes and sorry that I missed so many fab parties..er not forgetting the valuable networking with longstanding contacts discussing markets etc!..
its great to see some of the "news" ICIS editors generally have to keep to themselves out on the net, I look forward to providing a little blog news myself once I am back in the office! .