2022 ANNUAL MEETING RECAP

As we settle in from our 2022 Annual Meeting in Dubai, we are beaming with pride over what was without doubt one of our best meetings yet. We would like to thank our Gold Sponsor, ADSO LLC, from UAE, for all their contributions. We value having a local Gold Sponsor, and Riaz Karmali and team were a great help, especially with local advice as we approached the meeting.  

After 3 years of lockdowns and restrictions, it was thrilling to be together again. The energy and excitement in the room was palpable and productive. The feedback from our members has been overwhelmingly positive, and has us looking to the future with new vigor and motivation.

The event was balanced with focused, productive meetings as well as social events with a celebratory atmosphere. 

We kicked things off on the first day with our Advisory Board Meeting, where we made plans for the future with the help of some of our long term members, as well as some exciting new additions to the board. After being unable to meet in person for 3 years, it was great to finally put our heads together again and brainstorm new ideas and ways to improve our network, and our Annual Meetings in the years to come.

Next, we introduced ourselves to the many new attendees at our New Member Orientation. We offered an overview of what to expect at the event, a review of our Members Only web features, and gave new members and first time attendees an opportunity to connect with other new members ahead of the Welcome Cocktail Reception sponsored by TRANS CONTINENT, PT from Indonesia. 

Much like a family reunion, long time members celebrated being together again, while new members felt the value of their investment in the network by meeting other members from around the world. 

Even before the first One On One Meetings had begun, we were already receiving excited comments and feedback, and most importantly remarks about the quality of the other members in attendance. Our network takes great care in curating a group of the highest quality companies, and people.  For that to be felt so acutely by new members and first time attendees right away was satisfying and reaffirming of our mission and our efforts. 

Over the next 3 days, there was a packed agenda. We announced myself, Will Siemens, as our new network President, an honor which I am grateful to accept. We began each day with exciting presentations from our technology partners, including Abdullah Muhammad from Container Xchange, who shared his company’s platform for sourcing, buying, and leasing containers, a pertinent issue facing us all as COVID continues to wreak havoc on ports in China and cause disruptions across the supply chain. Kirk Aranha from Freightify shared his company’s platform for online freight rate management, with live updates enabling intelligent global rate solutions for forwarders. Both Abdullah and Kirk expressed their excitement following one on one demos with members throughout each day, looking forward to onboarding new clients in the near future. Anthony D’Ambrosio and Julia Duthie from Supply Chain Solutions offered an overview of our unique program which helps international forwarders obtain FMC Registrations by simplifying the process and removing the prohibitively expensive bond, thus avoiding heavy potential fines when working with the USA. They also told a fascinating story about how adopting state of the art logistics technology has elevated their offering and transformed the way they do business, bringing unprecedented value to their customers. Our Founder and Chairman, Bill Siemens, offered a profound presentation on what we call Relationship Technology, emphasizing the importance of making personal connections and building relationships to make an investment in our network success.

The days were also filled with back to back One On One Meetings. No matter how much we may try to connect digitally, there will never be a replacement for being in the same room with your partners, meeting face to face.  After such a long period of being apart, everyone was reminded of this fact.  Even members who had been in the network for a few years but had not yet had an opportunity to join an event because of the pandemic got fresh perspectives on the value of their membership with the network, and remarked on how excited they were to get home and pursue the new ideas and leads they discussed with agents from all around the world. We received great feedback about our 2022 Meeting App sponsored by Averitt Express USA, which was a great tool for members to get background on members ahead of meetings, locate the attendees they want to meet, keeping notes on each member company, presentation topics, as well as many other helpful features.

This all culminated in one of the greatest parties in our history at the 2022 Gala Dinner sponsored by Trans World Shipping Services from UAE. Trans World was also a great help to us as another local sponsor, and we are so glad that the gala was such a successful celebration. We enjoyed food, drinks, dancing, and even some live music from fellow network members! It was great to see everyone out of their seats on the dance floor sharing a memorable evening together.

We would like to thank all of our other sponsors: Seabridge Logistics Australia for the Meeting Bags, Lanyards, and Hats that made for such a great giveaway package to all delegates. Globe Trekkers UAE for sponsoring our much needed Coffee Breaks with coffee, tea, and snacks each morning and afternoon. Finally, the members who took advantage of sharing more information about their business in our One Page Ads included our Printed Meeting Books: Bina Trans, PT from Indonesia, Safety Group from China, Supply Chain Solutions USA, and Taewoong Logistics (TGL) from South Korea and Russia.  

Lastly, we announced Our next Annual Meeting will be in Panama February 2023, with our Gold Sponsorship already claimed by Cargo Services Group from Spain, Panama, Mexico, Cuba, and Dominican Republic. Although we are just back from Dubai, we can hardly wait to get back to work planning the next event, continuing to elevate our offering, and providing more and more value to our members in the years ahead. We look forward to seeing everyone again in Panama, as well as many new members that we will add in that time.

From the bottom of our hearts, thank you to all members who joined us for what was an undeniably special event. We are overjoyed, excited, and grateful.

-Will Siemens, President, Globalink & Global Value Network

We've been in the industry 20+ years. Don’t hesitate to contact us if you’re interested in learning more or joining the Globalink or Global Value freight forwarding networks. Email willsiemens@glnk.com or click here.