eyefortransport 3PL Summit continues to bring value

In my role, I travel a fair amount to industry conferences and trade shows. It is fair to say it comes with the territory.

Last week, I attended the 11th annual eyefortransport 3PL Summit in Chicago for the seventh time. I would not keep attending if I did not find it useful and highly valuable, too. The value comes on many fronts, including networking, education, session quality, and being in a great city like Chicago does not hurt either.

As has been the case in the past, I got an opportunity to see and participate in some terrific sessions with some of the leading 3PLs and savvy shippers in the business. There were no shortage of things to learn and discuss, ranging from the pending July 1 hours-of-service changes to 3PL M&A activity to natural gas to technology, among other topics.

But perhaps the most encouraging thing was the sense of economic optimism in a true sense or at least more true than it has been in recent years, given the green shoots we see for the auto and housing sectors, and a very active e-commerce sector, too.

In past years at this event and others, many providers put on a brave face when discussing company growth and the market temperature in terms of how things are going. But there is one key difference now: it is far more believable. I say that candidly and without any type of ax to grind.

In other words, it is true because it “feels” true. Make no mistake, there is a long way to go to get to where we need to when it comes to growth. But this event last week helped to explain the current environment and what we need to do to get to the other side.

One thing made clear at this event was that only Washington can control Washington so, in other words, don’t look for major changes in the Congressional climate anytime soon. But that should not deter anyone from the forward progress being made either. Progress is not always evident in data either but after what we have all been through over the past few years, it at least “feels” like things are changing for the better, albeit however slightly.

The eyefortransport team put together a great lineup of speakers and sessions, which in my opinion provided tremendous value and that needs to be recognized. It is one of my favorite trips of the year and I look forward to doing it again in 2014.