Letter from the CEO

Tad Zurlinden

The HHG industry is breathing a huge sigh of relief as container costs and shipping delays have come down post Covid. But the bottle necks in the system have changed the way moving professionals are managing expectations and up the supply chain, the RMC’s and clients are facing a new reality of higher costs.

Spring for the relocation industry can be a diverse time of year for business. Some industry leaders I speak with are busier than ever, working through the pent up demand created by the pandemic. Others are still seeing a reluctance of clients to commit to long term moves. Add into this geo-politics and the impact of the ongoing war in Ukraine and it’s an uncertain time for business globally.

Over the past weeks I’ve had the opportunity to talk at length with mobility professionals all across the world and in diverse business sectors. In February EuRA’s Ops Manager Briony and I travelled to New Orleans for the Corporate Housing Providers Association conference in New Orleans. The CH sector has enjoyed a boom following pandemic restrictions being lifted in almost every country. Interestingly, Europe and the US are not alone in a huge uptick in volumes, prompted largely by both pent up demand and also sky high rental costs. The scarcity of property is keeping expats and their families far longer in corporate housing than we have ever seen before.

At the IMA and FIDI conferences that EuRA COO Dom and I attended in Asia, different but no less important factors are at play.

Higher costs in HHG are not unique. EuRA spent the past year as working and part of the “Coalition for Greener Mobility”, a unique coming together of six associations with the aim of creating a roadmap for all stakeholders in our unique industry to ark towards more sustainable practices. At the IMA Conference the theme was all about sustainability and at the FIDI conference I took part in a session looking at the work done so far and the impact that ESG is having on service delivery. All sectors of mobility are under pressure from clients and it’s the job of the coalition to lead the way. One of the questions that was raised from an audience member was “How do we cut out the inevitable extra costs that will come about as a result of a huge new layer of sustainability consulting?” To which our answer is that we hope to get their first with implementable, scaleable and realistic solutions at no cost to our members across the coalition. And so to Dublin! The conference was closed at 600, our maximum capacity for the gala dinner to take place in a single space. But the demand was so huge, we worked with the Radisson Royal and they have very kindly and bravely agreed to extend our maximum capacity to 750 which was the extent of the initial wait list. This does mean the gala dinner is split into two spaces. We still have another 100 people on a second waitlist but we can’t extend any further and delegates have told us over 25 years not to make the conference any larger! We have a great event lined up with some inspiring keynotes sessions and breakouts as well as our great networking and party events. We have a band (literally) of intrepid EuRA Members who will play a great set for dancing after the Gala Dinner so thanks so much to board member Sophie Rehberg, and our musical genius members Inigo Lopex and Maximilian Cao for setting that up and of course to our AV Guru Michael for making the logistics work!

The team and I are so looking forward to welcoming you to Dublin. It’s time again to reconnect, re-energise and remember what it is that makes the connections we hold with each other so special. Yes of course first and foremost this is about doing business. But the EuRA Conference is also about creating and maintaining friendships, connections and meetings of minds.

There’s a difference between an audience and a community. An audience is who we address on social media or who we deliver a one way message to. During Covid I had so many people tell me that conferences were part of the past, that audiences would now be found on Zoom and YouTube. Evidenced by how much we’re all back to meeting in person, I would say the difference between an audience and a community has never been more clear.

See you in Ireland!