The European Rental Association (ERA) Convention kicked off June 24 and runs through June 26 at the Amsterdam Rai venue in the Netherlands.
The program for the Convention is packed with high-profile speakers and presentations, with the event kicking off with a CEO and leadership panel discussing the challenges and opportunities facing the equipment rental market.
Senior figures from the global rental industry will speak in the panel discussion, including United Rentals CEO Michael Kneeland, Loxam CEO Gérard Déprez, Cramo CEO Vesa Koivula, Vokjer Stevin Materieel COO Derrick Golden, and Hilti regional head for Northern Europe Gareth Lewis.
Tonight will feature a cocktail reception open to participants to the ERA Convention and exhibitors at the International Rental Exhibition (IRE), which takes place at the same time in the same venue.
The morning of June 25 begins with a roundtable discussion about what the industry can learn from Japan. Xiaoming Cheng, board member from the Japan Construction Equipment Rental Association, will take part.
A second roundtable is also scheduled for that morning on the theme of yield management, with speakers including United Rentals CFO Bill Plummer; financial manager at Cramo Sweden Ann-Charlotte Ågren; and Eric Hills, SVP Zilliant.
This will be followed by a promotion committee report from HSS’s Fiona Perrin, and then an equipment technology report from Cramo’s Martin Holmgren.
The afternoon of June 25 will begin with a plenary session including a presentation on rental versus ownership, with MEP Judith Merkies, and a presentation on the future of the web from Cor Molenaar of eMarketing and Distance Selling.
Market trends
Later that afternoon, American Rental Association CEO Chris Wehrman will give a presentation on trends in the US rental industry, followed by a presentation on trends in the European rental industry from Graham Arundell, managing director of HAE and chairman of the European Rental Association statistics committee.
The evening of June 25 will play host to the European Rental Awards dinner – the shortlist for which has been released.
On the third day, a parts management roundtable will kick off the morning of June 26, featuring Cramo’s Martin Holmgren and SmartEquip’s Alex Schuessler.
The main theme of this year’s ERA Convention is ‘Internet as a Game Changer,' and the second roundtable of the morning will be on this subject, featuring Eugen Russ from Erento and Christian Seifert from Avenit.
Google keynote
The ERA Convention culminates with guest speaker Richard Robinson, director at internet giant Google, addressing delegates on the afternoon of June 26 – a high-profile speech that looks set to be a real highlight.
The ERA Convention takes place at the same time as the sell-out International Rental Exhibition and APEX international access platform exhibitions – all three are being held at the Amsterdam RAI Exhibition Centre.
For more details, click on the following link:
http://www.erarental.org/upcoming-events/upcoming/ERA-Convention-2014-and-International-Rental-Exhibition-15.html
