Roman Holiday

When scrap recycling industry professionals from around Europe and beyond convene in Rome late this May, they’ll have plenty to discuss. What’s more, they’ll be in one of the world’s most legendary cities when they do.

That’s the hope of the Brussels-based Bureau of International Recycling (BIR), which holds its 2012 World Recycling Convention & Exposition from May 29 to June 1 in Rome at the Rome Cavalieri Hotel. Attendees are expected from a large majority of the 70 countries BIR represents.

Elisabeth Christ, BIR communications director, says attendees can expect excellent networking opportunities with business contacts from around the globe, as well as firsthand information on commodity markets, the economy, trends and legislation affecting the recycling industry.

“We always try to help our members with any information related to their business,” Christ says. “We try to find out in a democratic way what our members want, and we try to give that to them,” she adds.

Christ says the association once again hopes to accomplish two major goals with its convention plans: facilitating business among delegates via networking opportunities and providing valuable, pertinent business information in the various sessions.
 

European Setting
Attendance at BIR’s annual convention has grown in recent years, Christ says, and particularly during the last five or six years.

Slightly more than half of BIR’s members are European-based companies, Christ says, and while European venues have traditionally attracted more attendees than non-European venues, that’s not always the case. In fact, the association was pleasantly surprised by last year’s convention attendance in Singapore, which topped 1,000, Christ says. Similarly, two years ago, when the event was held in Dubai, 67 of the 70 European countries were represented by delegates.

But this year, the association decided to return to Europe. Christ says the Rome venue was chosen because the association’s Italian business people represent one of the strongest national groups within BIR.

“BIR has met several times in Italy already, and each time excellent attendance numbers confirmed the interest of our members in this convention venue,” Christ says. “Incidentally, Rome is one of the most beautiful cities in the world, which obviously is another good reason to be there.”

While BIR hasn’t said whether registrations for this year’s convention will break attendance records, Christ says attendance is expected to be strong.

“We’ll definitely be way beyond the 1,000-delegate mark,” she says. Some 35 exhibiting companies are expected to participate in the companion trade show.

Christ says all available accommodations at the host hotel, the Rome Cavalieri, were snapped up quickly. “The convention sold out almost two weeks after we opened registration,” she says, but she adds that was not out of the ordinary for the conference.

To accommodate delegates who were unable to secure accommodations at the host hotel, BIR has also reserved blocks of hotel rooms at several comparable nearby hotels, two of which were also sold out as of press time.

Top, BIR convention delegates benefit from market-related information at one of the plenary sessions. Bottom, attendees have plenty of networking opportunities in the exhibit hall.

One highlight of this year’s event is sure to be BIR’s Welcome Evening, held at 7:30 Wednesday at the Villa Miani, the historic villa and garden overlooking St. Peter’s Basilica and its magnificent dome. All registered delegates, guests and spouses are invited to attend. Within walking distance of the hotel, the event features food, drinks and entertainment and is planned as a memorable networking opportunity. Christ says the event could be held outdoors, weather permitting, on the grounds of the beautiful villa and gardens.

Meanwhile, the evening’s entertainment, in keeping with BIR tradition, hasn’t been announced. “That is always basically a surprise, planned by our director general,” Christ says. “I’m sure it will be very nice, but it is a secret.”

The Old and the New
The convention’s various plenary sessions, scheduled for Wednesday, Thursday and Friday, are being planned to provide firsthand market information with a special focus on country- or region-specific trends, as reported by board members with direct experience in those areas.

“At the end of the day they tell us via the committees,” says Christ. She explains that the various BIR committees are asked to discuss topics of interest internally, and their choices are presented to BIR’s executive committee to assist with conference planning. Christ says while some of the information presented might be similar in nature to prior years, this is the sort of program BIR members want. “They come to the sessions and they get really solid information on business forecasts and market reports,” she says. “It tends to be always the same type of information they are receiving, because that is what they are asking for in terms of their business plans.”

Various BIR committee meetings are planned for Tuesday, the first day of the conference. Wednesday, plenary sessions will include programs on tires, nonferrous metals and stainless steel/special alloys. Wednesday afternoon’s programming will include a workshop on waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE).

One educational highlight of the conference is expected to be the nonferrous metals division plenary session. BIR reports that the program will offer a broad international representation of guest speakers.

Among the topics under discussion will be the challenge of the Eurozone crisis for the world economy, the importance of Asia as the fastest growing secondary aluminum market and the impact of strong Indian and Far Eastern scrap demand on domestic brass production. In addition, three guest speakers have been announced as part of the nonferrous program: Loretta Forelli, an owner of the Forelli Group, an Italian company that specializes in brass ingot production; Marco Valli, chief Eurozone economist for UniCredit; and Shigenori Hayashi, director of materials management at Japan’s largest secondary aluminum smelter, Daiki Aluminum Industry Co.

Thursday’s programming highlights include a session by the international trade council. Topics expected to be covered include container theft, material theft and fraud.

As of press time, the keynote speaker, set in association with Thursday’s General Assembly session, has not been announced. Christ says the association also is considering departing from its traditional focus on providing worldwide financial market information and global economic forecasts in favor of a motivational-themed seminar aimed at team building or business management strategies.

Christ also says Thursday’s plenary Ferrous Division session will feature an interesting panel discussion with representatives from a major steel mill along with two representatives from widely known scrap steel providers, discussing such topics as supply and quality issues regarding secondary scrap steel. In addition, Christ says, board members are expected to deliver ferrous market reports from around the world.

Christ says the ferrous session also will include an update on world steel scrap statistics, with the association’s annual release of its compilation of steel scrap statistics.

Networking opportunities are another main thrust of the program, and Christ says BIR hopes to once again provide its members convenient networking opportunities by bringing so many industry contacts from around the world all under one roof for the three days of the conference. “They go home very happy,” she says. “It saves them a lot of traveling.”

In addition to all of the educational programming, BIR also has arranged a selection of sightseeing tours that can be booked through the association’s conference organizer, EGA Professional Congress Organisers.

More conference information and additional details are available at www.bir.org/conventionwebsite/rome2012/home.

The author is a managing editor with the Recycling Today Media Group and can be reached at lmckenna@gie.net.