Koen Vandermeersch Founder & Owner The Global OTR Library
Roy Gayler Training Manager Klinge
Michael Ferguson Sales & Marketing Rim-Lock Innovations
Awesome Earthmovers took to the grand halls of The Hilton Hotel in Antwerp, Belgium, for the first ever OTR Tyre Conference in Europe.
Two years ago, inspired by massively successful events in the USA, Koen Vandermeersch of the OTR Library decided to broach the subject with European businesses. Koen’s invitation was taken with great anticipation as most of these businesses have travelled to similar conferences in the past, but, as an untested concept in Europe no one really knew the level of success the conference might produce.
Across three days, The Global OTR Conference in Antwerp brought together an entire industry: harmoniously marrying a celebration of an often-overlooked industry with a fantastic opportunity for collaboration to push the boundaries of technology.
The conference started each day with a ‘safety tip’ from Training Manager at Klinge, Roy Galyer. These daily tips set the stage for days of panels, talks and informative roundups from influential individuals within the industry.
Between the sessions, Koen gave businesses the chance to network around local food and drink, something Koen coined a “tabletop moment”. With exhibitors travelling from every continent in the world, the opportunity to meet in person those whom they speak with regularly was truly a rare one, all those who Awesome Earthmovers questioned gave glowing reviews of the time and effort afforded to make every attendee feel welcome.
Exhibitor highlights include TMS (Tire Monitor System) who were fresh back from installing systems for businesses in Mongolia and Kazakhstan, Erlau, the heavy-duty chain manufacturers, and Monaflex, who were celebrating 60 years of business repairing and providing training to repairers across the world.
Globally recognised names were also in attendance: Michelin, Yokohama and Continental each demonstrating merits for their own services and products. Shoulder to shoulder with these historic giants were new names to the industry from Asia: Tech King and LingLong Tire, both showcasing their right to be named alongside the US and Euro names.
An event such as the OTR Tire Conference always has the potential to feel like a scramble to pull as many attendees to your stand as possible however, by inviting exhibitors to collaborate and network, this conference created more of an atmosphere of looking to the future betterment of the industry rather than competing to sell products and services.
As Koen Vandermeersch put it at the start of the conference:
“THIS IS A SPACE BUILT FOR
SHARING IDEAS, TACKLING CHALLENGES AND TALKING ABOUT SOLUTIONS THAT WILL DRIVE OUR SECTOR FORWARD.”
The OTR Tyre Conference in Antwerp provided this opportunity and much more.