Recently in gossip Category

On my way back from registration for AFPM in the Grand Hyatt on Saturday afternoon, I run into Bernard who tells me that he is just back from the tropical paradise of Praia do Forte in Brazil, where he was attending the 6^th EBDQUIM conference hosted by the Brazilian association of chemical and petrochemical distributors Associquim.

It was great, he says, only while he was there he was bitten by wild dog and ended up having to have five rabies shots. He indicates the parts of his body where the five needles were plunged. I can tell he is still feeling this was a bit of an over-reaction to what he describes as a slight scratch. He also wasn't too impressed with his colleague Joe, who made a quick departure from the scene crying "I'll get a doctor."

The gossip at conferences usually comes down to:

1)     Who's in?

2)     Who's out?

3)     Who's moved where?

With optional extras: weather, travel, children and who's got the best hotel rooms.

The Aromatics Conference was a good opportunity to meet some of the new faces in the business - new companies, and new players at the old companies. The group has a way of renewing itself.

The stories about people moves proved to be the most entertaining.

One guy who had moved from being a major buyer to a key seller said that he had switched from talking the price down to talking the price up in the space of one second. It hadn't given him a moment's doubt.

Others who had been required to move from their home city to Switzerland (a trend previously documented by the Blog) had not found the move so easy.

"You can take the boy out of X, but you can't take the X out of the boy," said one observer.  

"It's like Stockholm Syndrome," said another, casually suggesting that the boys' previous employer had been the hostage-taker.

The hotel rooms for most of us in the conference hotel were charmingly historic, on split-levels with timber beams. However some rather eminent delegates had lucked out in the lottery which is hotel room allocation, and did not fare quite so well.

At the conference cocktail reception, kindly sponsored by Jeroen B of Vitol, and held on a chic balcony over the gothic ex-chapel conference room, copies of Paul and John's paperback book

"Boom, Gloom and The New Normal, Chapters 1-7" were given out. Paul and John were in their element signing copies for their readers.

Everyone was held up by the fog - even those delegates who live only a short drive away. The worst travel tale was from Ilona, who had taken 11 hours to get there.

Some of the delegates were already thinking about their plans for GPCA, which I noticed the locals were referring to as "Jip-ca" in the same way we refer to "Ep-ca" as a word.

At the end I had promises from two players to speak next year, and these will not be forgotten:

a)     an ARA trader

b)  a Middle East producer

One delegate was so incensed at having the barcode on his EPCA name badge scanned on entry to every conference event that he cut the barcode off, he told the Blog on Monday afternoon in the ICIS suite.

Having swipe cards tracking your movements within a company is legitimate for security reasons he said, but not here where it is just for commercial reasons.

The constant scanning made him feel like a pig on its way through the slaughterhouse.

It is a breach of privacy, he protested, but admitted that one of his friends had called him "the last hippy" in the industry.

Joe Chang in ICIS New York has won the first ever ICIS Decathlon and writes this characteristically modest account ...

Two years, one pulled hamstring, a sprained ankle, bruised egos, and countless regrets culminating in one spectacular bar fight, has finally resulted in a winner in the 1^st ICIS Decathlon.

 

In a dizzying array of 10 feats of strength between editorial and sales in New York, ICIS Chemical Business Global Editor Joseph Chang steamrolled over US Sales Manager Bernard Petersen.

 

The triumphant winner was presented the coveted ICIS Champion Trophy (pictured) in a ceremony in New York.

A man in a bubble briefly drew the attention of EPL delegates holding their meetings on the terrace of the Copenhagen Marriott on Thursday afternoon.

"Are we living in a bubble?" "The bubble bursts," and various other bubble-related clichés were suggested by one passing Benelux trader, after discussions of the downturn in chemical activity in Q2 and ominous macro-economic indicators for Q3.

Aside from business, hot topics at the industry gathering were:

• relocating to Switzerland - how expensive it is and who does or doesn't want to go;
• more traders' children coming into the business - this time Peter D's son Guy, and Elvira's daughter Vanessa;
• how herring is a very fine food;
• why Copenhagen has such a huge airport - answer: it is the main airport for both Denmark and Sweden;
• how everyone was too busy eating herring to see the historic lunar eclipse on Wednesday evening;
• how having a new CEO can be a time-consuming business;
• how wearing a pastel-coloured suit can make you look like "The Saint."

What is the point of going to the "best restaurant in the world," if you can't tell everyone about it?

One group abjured the delights of the EPL dinner in Copenhagen on Thursday evening to visit Noma (as predicted by the Blog six months ago.)

Other delegates said that the diners had made sure to inform everyone else in advance.

"I hadn't heard from him in months, but he sends me a one-line yahoo last week to say he was going to Noma," one delegate said mockingly.

The one-line yahoo appeared to have been sent to multiple recipients.

Shortly after midnight, and following the EPL dinner, the calm of the Copenhagen Marriott bar was shattered by the triumphant return of the Noma diners.

"The Noma boys are here," they shouted on arrival, while another trader sniffed at their suits and claimed to detect the strong scent of chip shop.

Southwest Chemical Association held its Spring Golf Outing on Monday 2 May 2011 at the Kingwood Country Club, Houston, and ICIS was there to sponsor the bev carts again.

Says Heather: "This is our 9th year to do so. Hundreds of our customers are at this event and everyone knows who ICIS is there!" Heather's photos from the May event are below ...

(photo above: Southwest Chemical Association)

David Lubbock played in the band at the Gantrade party on Monday night at NPRA, I hear from fellow travellers on the BA flight back to London.

Although the Blog bailed out before the legendary late-night Gantrade party at Michelino's, we hear that there was a fair amount of men-only dancing, as is often the case at industry events. Some partygoers had enjoyed a wine-tasting menu at a separate dinner before the party, so there were some painful meetings the next morning.

More children are following their parents into the chemicals industry. Like "Star Trek 2: the Next Generation," the Blog keeps coming across their fresh new faces at industry events.

At NPRA, we met again Kraasen, son of Miroslav Mladenov at Kolmar. And then Bart, son of Roger Reekmans, now at GE Power and Water.

So that's Fred from Nizhex and his son Max. Anna and her father Sergei at Nizhnekamsk. Ian and his son at Hutton Chemicals. Eran with his dad at BMS. Sofia following her mother Elvira of Peninsula. Birgit following her father Otto at Shell. Dieter, now retired from BASF, and his son Harry at BP. Ruth and her daughter at Kolmar. And Peter's daughter at Interchem.

Caroline adds: "The charming Georgio Bonetti and his lovely son Paolo."

(photo: Rex)

Never one to sink to gossip and trivia itself, the Blog couldn't help but overhear a few choice titbits at the Aromatics Conference:

• One well-known trader, currently resting between jobs after an Asian holiday, is about to join (in January) another trading house, the name of which is apparently common knowledge around the business.

• Employees of a major petchems company who are currently being relocated to a more mountainous country are the focus of some unwelcome extensive attention from their home local tax authorities.

• The new owner of a petchem company dear to the Blog's heart could be named in the coming weeks.

• The circular atrium of the conference hotel, the Berlin Grand Westin, was the location for the filming of The Bourne Supremacy.