Recapping Day One of PARCEL Forum '25: Insights and Noteworthy Discussions

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.

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
Hey everybody. Welcome to aParcel Forum Day 1 recap episode
from Outside the Box withAsendia USA podcast. I am Nick Agnetti,
Jason Rowland and we are goingto recap day one of Parcel Forum
where the day's winding down.The time is going slowly though,
and here we are.

(00:21):
This is Outside the Box withAsendia usa, the podcast educating
US based brands, marketplacesand e tailers on international shipping
topics and how they can expandtheir global e commerce footprint.
Yeah, you know what though? Ithink we did a lot of great, great
discussions here today. Ithink the session with Green Mountain,

(00:43):
I think was, was a great wayto get started and going into how
providers and carriers can dobetter and where they can do better.
And I think that kind ofinformation is, is great not only
for customers but for, forother carriers too, because it really
kind of brings everybody tothe same level, kind of levels the
playing field for carrierslike us and, and, and other competitors

(01:06):
that are out there because itreally holds, holds us accountable
to our sla, right? Holds usbig time for what we've committed
to our customers. And I thinkthat can go a long way. So, yeah,
I think it was, you know, asfor me, from my side of the house,
on the legal risk andcompliance side, these events are
not things we usually getexposed to, but those kinds of discussions

(01:27):
are great. And I think thework we've done here today really
kind of gets us India's nameout there, it gets our partners names
out there and gives people agreat platform to put their information
out that they want everyone to know.
Jason, I love it. Good, goodrecap for you. And you're right,
you don't do trade shows oftenat all. So, so what do you think

(01:50):
though? And about the show?
Yeah, I mean, I haven't had achance to go to many of the speeches
and events sessions other thanthe Open Forum here, but it's really
interesting to watch thesepeople go through the motions of
like setting up and gettingeverything ready and just it's a

(02:10):
little production show forthem and you know, it's for terms
of them and representing theircompanies and the sales, it's, it's
a huge production. And what.Just watching this thing grow from
being empty this morning towhat it is now full of people and
all these exhibits, it's, it'samazing to watch it happen. So.
Yeah.
Yeah. So for me, having notreally experienced that before, it's

(02:32):
certainly been interesting andI look forward to, you know, maybe
doing more of these because Ithink that level of collaboration
and discussion between notonly customer to vendor, but vendor
to vendor I think is somethingreally important. And it's worked
out really well. I'm glad wewere able to do this.
I love that, I love thatyou're coming in with all the good

(02:53):
stuff right now. So from whatI heard, there's about 2400 attendees
at this show and then I don'tknow, number of booths. But what
I would say is, for a recap iswe're looking at, it's a ton of carriers,
ton of logistics focusedcarriers. And then we've got a lot
of parcel spend management,we've got a ton of automation vendors.

(03:17):
I have seen some AI vendors,we've got some shipping insurance.
And then on the automationside, it kind of ranges from, you
know, simple carrier systemsto really advanced and robust tms,
you know, inventorymanagement, all those things, OMS
systems, et cetera. I think,you know, for anybody that's in the

(03:40):
logistics space, I thinkprobably both B2B and B2C, it's a
worthwhile visit. Sure.Depending upon what you're looking
for. And yeah, I think thatyou have a captive, you have a somewhat
captive audience and it givesyou an opportunity to, to speak with,
you know, not only shippersand brands, but there's a lot of

(04:01):
vendors like I mentioned aswell. So in. I forgot to even mention
too, there's a ton of 3PLfulfillment businesses that are here
as well.
Yeah, it really, you don'treally understand going into it,
what goes into logistics.
Right.
It's all these different.Every company here in one way or
another touches mail, theytouch parcel. Whether it's the fulfillment,

(04:24):
you know, or a sortingtechnology or scanning technology
or whatever it is, every, allof us are here because we're all
in the same industry. Right.So, yep, that's. It's the number
of ways that these companiesinteract with that volume is crazy.
So, yeah, it's amazing to seethe amount that goes into logistics

(04:45):
and how these trade shows workand the number of companies that
touch things in one way oranother. But through the work of
everybody that's here, youknow, everything keeps moving.
Yeah, I agree. And so, yeah,so I, I think, you know, this is
probably my, I want to saymaybe my sixth parcel forum. This

(05:05):
one is. This one looks reallygood, but I think this one has been.
We've had some goodconversations. We recorded a couple
great episodes here today withsome great guests. We had, like you
mentioned Green Mountain,which is fascinating. Liking all
the different things that theydo and focus on. I find that the,
the more I listen to Miketalk, the more I realize what an
effective partner they are inthe space. Absolutely. Then we also

(05:25):
had Chas from InternationalBridge on talking about non continental
US Puerto Rico, Hawaii andAlaska parcels. Another very interesting
conversation with a lot ofstuff that I just, I was not aware
of. So I learned a ton withthat. Yeah.
And things that can reallybring, you know, I think competitive
savings to our customers andour customer base. Knowing as little

(05:47):
as I knew about InternationalBridge going into it, to hear how
they've kind of created thatniche for themselves in the market
and what they're able toprovide and just beat SLAs from other,
other, other vendors is, isamazing to see what they put together.
So yeah, it was great to sitdown with, with him and, and Chas
and have that discussion andlearn more about them. So yeah, I'm
excited to, to see how thatpartnership continues to grow for

(06:09):
some of you.
Yeah, me too. So overall, dayone, 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 hereif you are, you know, if you didn't
get a chance to attend and youstill want to connect and talk about
how we can help when it comesto, or how to improve your business

(06:29):
when it comes to cross borderdeliveries, international parcels.
Love to have that conversation.
Yeah, yeah. Thanks a lot fordoing the sessions here today and
thanks for joining, joining usand, and we'll see you again tomorrow
when we do day two.
Yes, we will. All right, seeyou then.
Share, subscribe and downloadour podcast to learn more about today's
topic or for a freeconsultation, email [e-mail]

(06:55):
Come back for more insightfuldiscussions on E commerce shipping
to Canada, Mexico and worldwide.