An updated TIACA off to Miami, with a 'low-cost airline' model for ACF

© Marina Akhadova |

Each year, there are an increasing number of industry events, especially in the air cargo sphere. Whether invite-only – Kale Logistics in Istanbul, or Xeneta in Amsterdam – or next week’s Air Cargo Handling & Logistics in Istanbul, ACE24 in Budapest, or the ecommerce event in Liege, there have been more than usual. 

Traditionally, one of the larger (if biennial) exhibitions in air cargo has been TIACA’s Air Cargo Forum (ACF), now in Miami, which has been, over the years, the cash cow that keeps the non-profit association in the black until the next event. 

But with restricted budgets, can it compete with the large number of other shows – and can it keep TIACA going? 

“TIACA lost quite a bit of money over a 10-year period,” admitted Glyn Hughes, secretary general.  “In the past couple of years, I would say, break-even is about the right phraseology; we make a small surplus. I think last year it was about $6,000. 

“But the board has said, we don’t want to go back to the days of boom/bust. That doesn’t help anybody.  

“We don’t want to lose money, obviously, because then you just drain what are already quite thin reserves. So the ACF is an important component, but probably not to the degree it was, say, 10 years ago, because we’ve got a much larger membership base nowadays.” 

Membership numbers are on the rise, growing from 343 in October 2019 to 464 today, accounting for some 60% of total revenues, alongside other money-making initiatives, such as environmental assessment tool Blue Sky – although that is also currently at break-even as it gets underway. 

But since the change of management at TIACA in 2019, the board has doubled-down and put on more events, including regional meetings, and decided this year to offer the ACF annually, switching between Miami and Abu Dhabi.  

“The board has said they don’t want events to become cash cows,” added Mr Hughes, pointing out that they are better value for money than other events. 

“Our executive summit is probably half the price of IATA’s WCS, and our regional events are something like $150 for members and $250 for non-members, just to cover the costs of food and the room; the primary objective is to engage with the industry.” 

But the biennial ACF was in part successful because it was always held in a non-Munich Transport & Logistic year.  

“We do know that in a Munich year a lot of people will dedicate their full budgets to that.” 

However, with Messe Munchen, the organiser of Munich, snapping up shows everywhere – Air Cargo India and Africa and now Air Cargo Americas in Miami, it’s becoming impossible not to compete with them. But Mr Hughes noted “their early bird rates are more expensive than our full market rates; so it does show that we are relatively cost effective”. 

He added that the timing of the event was crucial in amassing the right people: “We are positioning our event at the end of each year as a chance for forwarders and carriers to spend time together, review the past year, plan for the upcoming year.” 

The trick to that will be attracting forwarders and, potentially, shippers – the ‘holy grail’. Previous TIACA events have tended not to attract significant numbers; TIACA seems to appeal to very large forwarders, and very small ones – leaving a significant gap. (Although in The Loadstar’s experience, mid-size forwarders tend to spend their time forwarding, with little appetite for industry chat) 

Shaping the ACF is based on members’ feedback, and this year it has adopted a low-cost airline model: paying for what you want. There is a free networking app – but there is a better one which can email contacts and book meetings, for $300 a pop. The networking receptions are between $150 and $225 – about 15% of those who have registered have signed up for the pricey drinks events, likely to be 300 to 400 people. Wi-Fi in the halls will be a problem – the event space wanted $70,000 to flick on the switch. As a result, Coyne Airways is sponsoring a ‘wi-fi zone’, which is likely to be pretty busy. 

And, after some pushback on the decision to introduce a golf event – a rather male sphere – TIACA has introduced a breakfast yoga session, which owing to strong demand, has had to double its capacity. Interestingly, 90% of those who have signed up are men. 

TIACA, along with other industry associations, is trying, it claims, to ensure more gender diversity at its events. While it is hoping to release figures showing that its conference speakers demonstrate a reasonable balance – ahead of its competitor events – there is still much work to do. Overall, the event has just 10% female speakers; but if (as TIACA has asked) you remove the ‘spotlight’ programme, where companies are showcasing recent developments, signing up almost entirely men for this task, then the female figure goes up to 15%.  

It is still poor. But Mr Hughes said that when asked to speak, women tend to ask their bosses first – and often the bosses themselves decide to appear. “But if I ask a man, it takes 0.9 nanoseconds for them to say ‘yes’.” 

Try harder, is the simple answer to that. Keep asking women, talk to their bosses and explain why it matters.  

And men have a role to play here: they should be ensuring women are on their panels, or speaking, before they say ‘yes’. When the International Maritime Organization secretary general Arsenio Dominguez refuses to speak on all-male panels, it’s definitely time for others to follow suit.

TIACA is not wrong in one way – a random sample this year of speakers, at Air Cargo India (8% women) and ACHL (12.5% women), means TIACA may be above the industry average.  

But is being marginally better than the competition enough? No. 

However, TIACA is introducing a sustainability scorecard for each of its events, measuring itself on metrics including diversity and recycling.

Meanwhile, the exhibition floor – larger than last time – is not quite sold out (there could be a space where Boeing was meant to be) but registration numbers, while still a little low, are 100% ahead of where they were in 2022, according to Mr Hughes. 

And members seem happy with the updated TIACA, which recently launched an ecommerce task force which attracted a lot of interest. The aim is to produce a white paper, and “enhance engagement” with the World Customs Organisation. TIACA has also spotted a rich seam of tech companies which don’t have their own association. 

“The technology community is where the centre of innovation is going to happen. That’s where we see that enhanced member engagement is great, and how we then turn that back into enhancing what we do for the industry.” 

The Loadstar will be present at the Miami ACF, 11-14 November. We will be doing vox pop podcasts, vlogging – and, of course, writing. If you’d like to participate, let us know