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Global Passenger Network Bi-Annual General Meeting 9-11 November 2022 in Lyon, France
Global Passenger Network (GPN) held its 2022 Autumn General Meeting on 9-11 November in Lyon, France – the city of gastronomy – sponsored by IVECO. It was the first in-person General Meeting in 2,5 years as during the pandemic the Meetings were held virtually.
The 33rd General Meeting was successfully hosted by GPN France – Saybus by Réunir (subsidiary of Réunir network), whose team organized a memorable Meeting including social events in amazing venues and restaurants, welcoming all the GPN Members and Partners.
On the first evening, the opening ceremony of the Meeting and dinner took place at the Paul Bocuse Venue which was sponsored by IVECO – GPN’s new Strategic Partner. Alexandre Delvallez – CEO of the Réunir Network opened the ceremony with Saybus team by welcoming both GPN Members & Partners but also several Réunir shareholders that attended the event allowing the members of the two networks to create stronger bonds. Both Agnes Pastuszak – GPN Chairman and Thierry Schidler, Autocars Schidler’s President and representant of the Board of shareholders of the Réunir network, welcomed the participants.
Frederic Lahitte, Business Director KEY ACCOUNT and PRE OWNED Europe and Giorgio Zino, Business Director Europe, from IVECO also welcomed the group to Lyon and this evening’s event, briefly presenting themselves, their company, its products and innovations.
On the first day of the meeting, the participants had the opportunity to visit the premises and factory of IVECO. The visit was very interesting and educational for the participants as it allowed them to find out more about the company and the products it offers.
Following this visit, the meetings commenced with presentations from Alexandre Delvallez – Chairman of the Partnership Committee & Luis Pedrero – Chairman of the Membership Committee regarding the strategy of these committees for the next 5 years. Furthermore, we welcomed 5 new GPN Partners and 2 new GPN Members.
The GPN’s new Strategic Partners include IVECO, Volvo and Zwinq, the new Alliance Partner is Sensair and the new Affiliate Partner is Adastec. We thank our Partners for supporting GPN and its members and look forward to strengthening both the relationship and the businesses.
On the other hand, the new GPN members that were welcomed into our family are :
- Axelsson’s from Sweden established in 1946 and today maintains a fleet of over 100 vehicles
- Anderson Travel from the UK established in 1988 and today maintains a fleet of 40 vehicles
The GPN family is growing but the focus on high-quality transportation services remains our top priority. Our goal is to reach a total of 50 members by our 20th anniversary in 2026!
Tomas Jelinek – Chairman of the Sales, Marketing & Technology Committee was next to present the strategy for the next years which is focused on enhancing GPN brand awareness through exhibiting at trade shows, implementing marketing activities and strengthening the relationship between sales teams of the GPN members.
The first day was finalized with valuable input from 2 of our partners:
- GPN Marketing Strategy 2023 & Intro of GPN Academy by Catriona Walsh, OSD’s CEO
- Applied Autonomy: Bringing Autonomous Processes to Life by Olav Madland, Applied Autonomy’s CEO
The second day of the General Meeting commenced with the GPN Marketplace, a partner exchange session set to create more business discussions between GPN members & partners. This session works like “speed dating” during which Partners were seated at tables and GPN Members moved around the room to have their meetings. All appointments were pre-scheduled and each lasted 11 minutes. After this Marketplace, the participants could further discuss.
Following this Marketplace session, we had another interesting presentation:
- Challenges related to the electric vehicles presented by DAFO by Tommy Carnebo, DAFO’s Risk Management Specialist
The last session of the General Meeting was Round Tables discussions during which the participants were broken down into smaller groups to discuss various topics that are trending or challenging in the motorcoach industry. The views and ideas exchanged were valuable and have concluded on the next projects to be worked on by the organization.
To conclude this General Meeting, the dates and location of the GPN 2023 Spring General Meeting were announced. We are happy that the host of the next General Meeting will be GPN Argentina – SGM Solutions and it will take place in Buenos Aires on 13-16 March 2023!
Agnes Pastuszak – Chairman of GPN said: “It was great to meet with everyone in person again after 2,5 years. We indeed held various online meetings but nothing compares to being in the same room with our colleagues from other countries and partners from different industries or with the moments we share during our social events that create stronger bonds. We are happy that our organization has not only survived one of the biggest challenges faced – the pandemic – but we have grown and have become stronger. We are now facing different challenges but having the opportunity to exchange views and ideas on them helps us overcome them with greater ease. A great thank you to all GPN Board of Directors for all their work, efforts and time they put into this unique organization. It would not have been possible without them! I look forward to our next General Meeting in Buenos Aires, Argentina. It will be in a different continent making it possible for GPN to expand its network within this region. We are positive about the next season and will continue our hard work to make this organization successful.”
