Two hundred delegates from more than 20 countries and all sides of the industry recently met in Miami at the 23rd World Mail & Express conference, the third to concentrate specifically on issues facing North, South and Central America and the Caribbean.

A range of delegates from national and regional operators throughout the Americas, as well as Europe and elsewhere, and many of the leading customers and suppliers of global services to the industry met to debate and discuss success strategies for the future. Major players in the international market including DHL Global Mail, FedEx and Skypostal continued their support of the World Mail & Express series of events. In addition, other key organisations such as Belgian Post International, Correos de Chile, and Software AG benefited from the opportunities provided by the exhibition running alongside the conference.

Recognising that the industry throughout the Americas is reaching a critical stage in its development, conference sessions addressed a number of differing views of the changing marketplace, assessed methods of overcoming the key hurdles and provided an insight into best practice policies. Several presentations addressed the subject of co-operation between public and private sectors as well as the future of e-commerce, while customers’ presentations stressed the need to encourage more innovation from the post offices.

Continuing its tradition of providing top-level speakers, the Miami event featured important strategic speeches from a number of industry leaders. Gabriel Mateescu, Chairman of the Council of Administration of the UPU, for example, discussed the development of the UPU Consultative Committee as several delegates felt that this should be regionalised as well as co-ordinated on a global basis.

From Latin America, the presentation from Guatemala Post Office highlighted the new business model of government outsourcing the management of a post office, while Correos de Chile talked of its successful partnership with TNT. Cathy Rogerson from IBM and Paul Vogel from the United States Postal Service each delivered well-received speeches on partnership and co-operation, while the latter also announced USPS’ intention to give more focus to its international mail business in future.

After another profitable and productive conference, the overriding conclusion from those present was that there is sure to be more cooperation in the Americas between the public and private sectors in mail as well as in express. In particular, there was much talk of developments in South America in this direction as more private mail and express operators gain a foothold in that region and compete with the national posts. Although delegates were able to leave Miami looking forward with confidence for the future, it remains to be seen how well they will adapt to the developmental hurdles in front of them.

The 4th World Mail & Express Americas Conference & Exhibition will be held in Miami in December 2006, and will certainly assess the degree of progress towards greater co-operation and innovation that will have occurred in the meantime. Anyone in the American mail and parcels business, North, South or Central, should make a note in their diary now as it promises to be yet another event not to be missed!

Notes for Editors:

• The World Mail & Express (WMX) series of events has been running since 1988. It is organised by Triangle Management Services, based in the UK, and the Miami event on 5-6 December 2005 was the 23rd in the series;

• The Premium Sponsors of the 2005 event were FedEx and SkyPostal, while supporting sponsors were Belgian Post, Correos de Chile, DHL Global Mail, Software AG and Spring. The event was supported by CLADEC and UPAEP, with Air Cargo News, Flying Typers and Mailing Systems Technology our Media Supporters;

• 2005 also saw WMX events in Brussels and Dubai, and a Mail and Express Summit in the UK. 2006 events are planned for France, the UK and USA;

• For further press queries, please contact media@triangle.eu.com or call +44 (0)870 950 7900.

Triangle Management Services Ltd, founded in 1984, is today the pre-eminent independent specialist management services company within the global mail, express and logistics sectors. Triangle offers the following services to clients: Recruitment, Market Research, Consultancy, Conferences and Mergers and Acquisitions - all of which focus primarily on the mail and express industry sectors.