By Australasian Convenience and Petroleum Marketers Association Executive Manager Employment and Training Elisha Radwanowski BCom (HRM & IR).
Fuel, technology and convenience suppliers met with fuel wholesale and retail operators at Bangkok on 27-28 March for the ReFuel APAC 2023, for what was an intense but productive couple of days of learning and in-depth corporate speed-dating.
The unique format of the ReFuel Forums, presented by OpenRoom, is more than just a conference. The Forums include a day and a half of structured professional speed dating, a series of prearranged 20-minute meetings that allow for deep understanding and the condensing of a year’s worth of meetings into just a few days.
The conference presentations and panels allowed for detailed exploration of the challenges facing the fuel industry in the Asia Pacific region and the structured one-to-one meetings allowed delegates to spend quality time with suppliers and Technology leaders from around the world exploring their solutions to the problems retailers are facing today and will tomorrow.
Sin Hin Wong, GM and VP Sales APAC for PDI Technologies, the Headline Partner for the event opened the ReFuelForum APAC 2023 and invited delegates to be open to new ideas and using the time to build and strengthen relationships with their success partners.
Klaas Mantel, McKinsey & Co, then provided the keynote presentation challenging delegates to get serious about EVs. “The future is already happening today, somewhere in the world, just at different paces. New Mobility retail will be good for most…but the skill set for success will change and if you are going to play the EV game you need to get serious and invest for the future. That may mean acknowledging that EV won’t work on some sites, it will mean investing in convenience retail, charger access and building a customer experience that is safe, welcoming and appropriate”.
David Anderson, VP Commercial Operations at PDI Technologies took delegates on a deep dive into importance of data and more importantly the steps required to turn that data into intelligence that is actionable, relevant and timely.
The pace then picked up as the Next Gen Technology Showcase challenged presenters to give their perspectives on the forecourt of the future with the rapid fire five slides in five minutes.
First up in the Showcase was Michael Johnson from Transaction Network Services, the ReFuel APAC 2023 Silver Partner, outlined to delegates the need to understand and rise to the evolving customer journey, remove day to day operational complexities and friction by integrating and updating all systems for seamless operations that drive loyalty and customer insights that allow the process to commence again with intelligence, not just information.
Then Alberto Cavanna, Masser Italia, outlined the forecourt automation and the downstream delivery chain, which provides an integrated solution for driving systemic improvements, profits and insights in an agnostic environment.
The five-minute challenge continued with Sebastian Renzi, ATIONET LLC continued the focus on future of frictionless and customisable interactions with an overview of the end to end modular solutions that include brand and hardware agnostic loyalty, fleet and preloadable customer card and app solutions.
Shibu Raj, FuelTrans, who are the Technology Partner for ReFuel APAC 2023, closed the Showcase by expanding on the focus on data, to explore the broader trends and changes facing forecourts of today and the massive opportunities that the hybridisation of both transport and forecourts themselves offer particularly when paired with the demographic shift downwards and the impact of this on convenience store spend.
After a quick refresh thanks to Franke Coffee Systems, the Coffee Partner for the Forum, delegates moved into the real work of the event…the one-to-one meetings that “allow us to do a year’s worth of meetings in a couple of days, it’s hard work, but well worth it”.
The meetings ran into the evening before a delightful dinner by the river complete with traditional Thai dance.
Day two of the Forum brought a focus on future fuels with a presentation from Neil Dsouza, lead of energy consulting and modelling in Asia for Jacobs, answering the question ‘Does Hydrogen have a role to play in road transport’. The answer was yes but the timeline for practical retail application is longer than most assume.
The presentation element came to a close with an interactive panel session exploring Fuel Security, Clean Tech and the Investment Challenge, where Jason Tran, Head of Fuel for 7-Eleven Australia and Dave Mommen, Regional Director APAC for Virta Ltd joined ACAPMAs Elisha Radwanowski explore the regional and local considerations for fuel retailers facing the challenge of being on leading edge of the transition to future fuels, not the bleeding edge. From the geo-political impacts to the shifting government priorities and support structures the panel and the retailers in the room explored the hurdles and opportunities that future fuels offer.
It was then into the real work of the event as the one-to-one meetings continued into the early evening before a quick break to change and then the networking continued at a gala dinner on the beautiful Asukssniw docked on the river at Asiatique.
After two days of intensive structured meetings and presentations retailers and supplier head home with new and deeper relationships and the partnerships ready to rise to the challenge of today and to take advantage of the opportunities of tomorrow.
ReFuel Forum APAC will be back in 2024 in March at Kuala Lumpur. This unique event is free for retailers to attend thanks to the participation of suppliers and the generous support of the partners:
- Headline Partner – PDI Technologies
- Silver Partner – Transaction Network Services
- Technology Partner – FuelTrans
- Coffee Partner – Franke Coffee Systems.
Elisha Radwanowski BCom (HRM & IR)
ACAPMA
Source: https://acapmag.com.au/2023/03/43865/.
