I had the recent pleasure of attending one of the world’s largest trade events in Europe – the 13th annual E-World energy and water in the western German city of Essen.
Organizers estimated more than 22,000 trade visitors attended during the three-day event at the fair venue – Messe Essen. For me it was a great opportunity to connect with some old and new friends and to learn about some of the latest innovations and trends taking shape in the industry.
The event consisted of energy market participants from around Europe, many of who had invited their customers along for the experience, and vendor companies providing services to the market.
Because it was so well attended and there were no separate break out presentations to attend, it felt like a very fast-moving networking event. Personally, I thought this made it easy to interact and communicate to those in attendance. And with so many people attending from around Europe, it was a really effective way to have a quick face-to-face catch up with a lot of different people I don’t normally have an opportunity to so easily connect with in-and-around London.
Over the course of my visit, I met with some of our friends and colleagues from our partner companies including Updata, Contigo, Triple Point Technology, ICIS Heren and Opportune. Our relationship with all of our partners continues to promote mutual benefits for both sides and so this was a great chance to connect once again with our friends from these companies.
I also dropped by a number of stands set up by some of ZE’s clients, including Gazprom Energy, OMV and Litasco Group. This for me was the highlight, particularly to catch up on how ZE’s end-to-end enterprise data management solution – ZEMA Suite – is continuing to enhance their core business. I’m looking forward to 2014 already.