The 16th ECSLA Cold Chain Logistics Conference & Trade Show will take place at the Crowne Plaza in Bruges/Belgium on February 25-27, 2013. The program is organized in close cooperation with the Belgian cold storage association BVBVK-UPBIF and is expected to draw some 150 industry delegates from 20 countries to beautiful Bruges.

The conference theme is: “The human factor in the cold store and distribution operation”. It is often said that "people" are the number one asset of a company. Especially in the cold storage and logistics industry this is true because it is a very labour intensive business. Surveys prove that labour costs can be 60% of the total operational costs, so a good reason to analyze the human factor in order to strengthen this core asset.

Can automation help the industry? But how to balance the use of workers with the implementation of automation? Can you still attract workers 5 or 10 years from now? Will they have the required skills? How to train and reward them? How to keep your workers motivated and the role of the manager? Other issues that will be discussed are health and safety in the cold store, the Lean & Green label, growth estimations of food e-logistics, risk management, ethical business behaviour, new technologies, succession in medium sized companies, etc.

This conference will offer suggestions, ideas and concrete answers at both the strategic and operational level and is a unique meeting place for the European cold storage industry.

The event features plenary sessions, round table meetings, workshops, Monday/Tuesday trade show plus networking and benchmarking opportunities. All this nicely mixed with formal and informal social events and opportunities to explore the many historical sites this city has to offer.

On the Wednesday, there is a full day facility tour with drop off at Zaventem Airport latest at 16.00 hours.