Juan José Potti EAPA President since May 2021
Thank you, François! I fully agree with you. It was both a challenging and exciting time to organise this first virtual E&E Congress.
Dear Participants, Speakers, Exhibitors and Sponsors,
My name is Juan José Potti from the Spanish Asphalt Producers Association ASEFMA and I am the current EAPA President @jjpotti.
I would like to give you a short overall resumé and some key takeaways from the congress.
Firstly, I would like to speak about, the first #AsphaltRunners fun run that took place on June 5 prior to this 7th E&E Congress.
Although the participation was moderate, it was a very fun “out of the Congress” experience and I am sure it will be repeated in future editions. “Asphalt Runners” participated from 9 countries of the world in a virtual race of 5 km, https://virtual.rockthesport.com/es/es/event/ee-asphalt-runners/classifications.
Los 3 primeros clasificados fueron:
3º Daniel Alcubilla 22:05 min
2ª David Bell 21:27 min
1º Bernabé Boticario 20:46 min
During the congress, I especially liked the very high level of technical content in the technical sessions, which we now expect from the E&E congress. The live sessions were informative and dynamic, thanks also to all the interaction in the chat and the Social Media.
I also appreciated the results from the live sessions and technical sessions related to Asphalt 4.0 theme. More than 15 communications related to the Asphalt 4.0 theme have been presented. I sincerely believe that we are taking a great step forward for the sector. From my point of view, it is urgent and very necessary that the digital transformation will be a reality in our activites.
We must be a very active in the digital transformation of the sector.
In the opening session, examples of development in other sectors were shown by the 4 speakers. That experience should motivate us to move faster, more effectively. I sincerely believe that in that session the strategic lines that should mark our development were shown.
I would also like to comment on the communication session. Again, a novel experience, in which 6 well-known representatives of the sector gave us very inspiring examples of activities carried out by their companies / organizations. From my point of view, we are living very unique moments in which it is not only necessary to do and solve but to share and sometimes mobilize in order to advance our ideas.
Those ideas that we need to adapt and provide solutions to all our challenges and in that sense, the ideas and proposals that they left us at the “future leaders” session were also very interesting.
I have had the privilege of participating in all the E&E Congress that have taken place for 25 years. Since that E&E Congress in Strasbourg in 1996. Always at the end of each of these 6 conferences, a series of main results or conclusions have been highlighted. For example, in Prague 2016 they were:
I believe that in this 7th E&E Madrid virtual Congress 2021 we can have two main conclusions:
During the three days of the congress, we had two let’s call them “competitions” running.
With the so called “leader board” we wanted to encourage participants to maximise their virtual experience. You could earn recognition points for joining live sessions, visiting booths, download materials, watch videos, chat with attendees and so on. The highest point earners were always displayed on the congress platform. I am happy to announce the top three participators who have truly maximised their experience during the congress until now!
No. 3: Name
No. 2: Name
No1: the most active attendee is: Name
Congratulations to you all and on achieving this high level of virtual experience!
Also, the social media activities have been monitored throughout the congress (e.g.) based on the activities on twitter and the use of the hashtag of the congress! Frank Biel already announced in the opening session that the top three proactive users of the #eecongress2021 hashtag will also be recognised and celebrated via social media for their advocacy and engagement. This engagement has now been independently measured by the software “Tweet Binder” and I would like to already announce you the names:
No. 3: Name
No. 2: Name
No. 1: the most active attendee is: Name
Congratulations to you! You are a real social media champion and proactive communicator of the #E&E Congress!
Maybe you could read one or two of the most liked and retweeted relevant Tweets? And give some more details on the activities in the Social Media (e.g. from tweet binder?)
Dear Ladies and Gentlemen,
Such a congress would not be possible without the hard work of many committed people and I now have the honour to mention them.
Thank you dear authors for sending in so many abstracts, articles, and posters. Without you we would not have a congress!
We also want to say thank you to all reviewers, in the independent double reviewing process, for evaluating all the sent-in papers.
Thank you dear Colleagues of the Technical Programme Committee to provide this excellent technical content of the congress, to select the speakers and to prepare the programme. A special thank you goes to the chair of this committee Mike Southern from Eurobitume for doing again an excellent job as he also did for so many congresses before! The names and contacts of all committee members can be found on the congress website and in the proceedings!
A big thank you to all speakers and panellists that have prepared excellent presentations and contributions. Also, a big thank you to our professional facilitator Aminda Leigh for the moderation of the opening and the communications session.
Thank you to all exhibitors and sponsors, thank you for your continued commitment to this 7th Congress from a face-to-face edition in 2020 to a virtual edition in 2021. Special thanks go to our Golden Sponsors: Ingevity, NYNAS and REPSOL.
We also want to say thank you to our Professional Congress Organiser KENES. Carlota Herrera and her whole team did a great job in supporting us to provide this first virtual E&E Congress.
Another big thank you goes to the Organising Committee. They organised everything from the beginning to the end: from the selection of KENES to the general layout of the posters. This committee is the heart and the decision body of the congress. Members of Eurobitume and EAPA worked extremely hard during the last couple of years and especially since the pandemic that hit us 15 months ago. The names and contacts of all committee members can be found on the congress website and in the proceedings!
And finally, we want to say thank you to you, the participants of this congress! It was an exciting journey with you to become virtual! Thank you also for your continued commitment.
As the organisers we strongly hope that we delivered the congress that you have deserved!
... and this brings me to the last point of my speech.
I would like to inform you that shortly after the congress a survey will be send to all participants either delegate or exhibitor. We would highly appreciate if you could send us your feedback! Certificates of participation will also be available after you have completed the surveys if required. I can assure you, that no feedback gets lost and we seriously discuss the outcomes of this surveys after each congress and again in the first meeting of each new Organising Committee!
We have already started our discussions around the next E&E Event and Congress. As soon as a decision is made on the location and timing we will communicate the news so you can already save the date!
With this information, I will close now this 7th E&E Congress 2021.
EAPA and Eurobitume wish you all the best for the future, stay safe and healthy and please join us again next time.
Maybe you can say goodbye in Spanish.
EUROASPAHLT EUROBITUME EAPA POTTI
