We landed in Barcelona on a cloudless early summer morning and began the 25th Conference on Postal and Delivery Economics that evening. The first night was a mix of old friends reconnecting over cocktails and reminiscing on the loss of Michael Crew, reflecting on just how much he meant to all of us both professionally and personally.
As mentioned in my last post, I had the pleasure (and pressure) of being the last paper delivered on the last day, in the last session, in the last presentation slot. Indeed, I closed out the conference! It was great to hear so many wonderful ideas from speakers prior to our session. Going last is a double-edged sword: you have the benefit of hearing other points of view which can both confirm and challenge your research and conclusions. Fortunately, it was a mixture of both which helped in my preparation.
Following such interesting presentations from Paul Hodgson and Geoff Bickerton made delivering the paper quite easy. Our session focused on the future of posts, big ideas intended to stimulate debate and discussion which it did. Robert Campbell, another veteran of these conferences, delivered helpful feedback on all 3 papers and gave me much to consider on the plane ride back across the pond. Robert encouraged me to go deeper and consider the exact regulatory frameworks posts would need to branch out and collaborate in adjacent areas of last mile parcel delivery. Indeed, that is a very interesting question, and one of which I am still struggling. Here in the U.S., we talk often about postal reform, yet at times we have tremendous difficulty precisely defining what it is.
I purposely ignored postal diversification strategies into banking, insurance, and financial services and instead focused on innovation in core postal business which simultaneously makes the debate easier and more difficult. It is clear there is much last mile business at risk in the years ahead. It is also clear there is tremendous opportunity for collaboration / partnering / innovation in that space. Trust is a critical element as new entry by Uber, Lyft, Deliv, and others cream skim last mile parcel delivery volumes.
I’m understanding that trust might turn out to be seminal research topic that takes me to Split, Croatia for the 2018 conference…#IBMAoT
houckOUT 