Episode Transcript
[00:00:06] Speaker A: Hello and welcome to the Lodestar podcast news in brief. Now, if you're wondering why this is out on a Friday and not a Monday, as per usual, that's because this is a very special episode of the news in Brief podcast. This is multimodal in brief. So, this week, myself and some other members of the Lodestar team attended multimodal at the National Exhibition Centre in Birmingham. And this is an annual event that allows people from all across the supply chain, land, sea, to gather in this ginormous hall. And it really was huge. I think I probably did about 30,000 steps every day, just running from each stand. And yeah, this year they had over 300 exhibitors and around 12,000 visitors. And I know it can be difficult sometimes for people to try and make time to attend these events. So I wanted to record a podcast to give you an overall feel of what it was like there. I spoke to some people from all across the supply chain, big companies, small companies, and in all different roles. So a huge thank you to everyone who agreed to be on the podcast. I know it's quite intimidating when someone puts a microphone in front of your face, but also, as you'll hear from recordings, there was quite a lot of background noise going on. There was a sea shanty band at one point, which was quite entertaining. And unfortunately, there was a few clips I had to edit out because you just couldn't hear what anyone was saying. So I'm really sorry if you gave me your time and don't hear yourself on the podcast. Excitingly, though, this episode is actually a celebrity special. I can officially say I've interviewed a celebrity, which is really cool. And that celebrity was multimodal awards dinner guest speaker Kevin Keegan. I did ask Princess Anne, who was there on the Thursday, she said no, unfortunately. So instead of actual royalty, we got football royalty. But you will have to wait until the end of the episode to hear that. Enjoy.
I'm here with Rob Jervis, event director at Multimodal. So, Rob, why do you host multimodal?
[00:01:51] Speaker B: Well, we've been running it since 2008, and I suppose when we launched it, there's a whole bunch of people then moving freight and not really considering the different modes that they could use to move that freight. So the show was sort of launched on the premises that, you know, you don't have to stick something on a truck or just fly something. You can actually mix those modes of transport. And it was a bit of a slow burn to start off with because people weren't necessarily convinced that it would work and that rail at the time was quite unpredictably poor.
But as technology has improved, so the ability to switch between those modes has become much more straightforward. And also there are much more freight routes available on the rail network now. So there are a lot more rail routes. There's technology to help link those modes together better. And it's all driven by the need for what we then call green transport, but now call sustainable transport.
[00:02:46] Speaker A: Well, it's an amazing turnout this year. How do you think this year's gone compared to the other year?
[00:02:51] Speaker B: This is our biggest event yet. Obviously we had a hiatus during COVID but I think that probably reinforced people's natural desire. You know, we're social animals, we want to meet. And so since 2021, when our first post Covid show ran, the show's been getting bigger every year. This is bigger again, about 15% bigger. We've squeezed more space into the hall and Vista numbers are up and I think people want to meet, they want to learn, they want to network. We've got lots of stuff going on in the theatres.
[00:03:21] Speaker A: Amazing.
[00:03:22] Speaker B: So it's. Yeah. So can you feel there's a sort of static in the air?
[00:03:26] Speaker A: Definitely. Everyone seems very excited. Yeah, yeah. Thank you so much.
[00:03:30] Speaker B: It's my pleasure.
[00:03:31] Speaker A: Emma Murray found of meantime communications. Emma, what do you think is the most important part about multimodal?
[00:03:37] Speaker C: I mean, it's got to be the fact that we get everybody together in one place, an opportunity to have a chat about things that matter for the industry. But it's also great to see multimodal supporting so many young people. So they've got their ambassadors here and they're showing them around, giving them a taste of the logistics industry.
[00:03:55] Speaker A: Sharon grid, general manager of ASM UK. So why did you come to Multimodal?
[00:04:00] Speaker D: Well, it's a really good opportunity for us to get in front of our customers, see them face to face. We're based in Ashford, near Heathrow, so to get up here, it makes it a lot easier for people to come from all over the country and talk to us, talk to any member of the team about the software and about the service that we provide.
[00:04:18] Speaker A: Wonderful. Thank you so much. I'm here with Eyal Goldberg, CEO of Breeze. So what do you think is the most important, important part about multimodal?
[00:04:25] Speaker E: I think it's one opportunity in a year to actually meet all stakeholders, customers, suppliers, people that you work with under one roof. The ability to talk to everyone and gain more knowledge about the industry and how things are developing.
[00:04:41] Speaker A: Okay, thank you so much. Kelly Hobson, director of sustainability and customer success at Rail X. So why are you at Multimodal?
[00:04:49] Speaker F: So it is an opportunity, opportunity to meet our clients. It's a great day to be able to showcase new products that we're doing in the industry at the moment. We're first to market in terms of technology, so it's a great opportunity to meet hundreds of people within the industry to really showcase the functionality and key benefits to their follow up later.
[00:05:09] Speaker A: Thank you so much. Al Richardson, head of membership and affinities at Logistics UK. So why are you at Multimedia?
[00:05:17] Speaker G: We come to multimodal for two reasons. One, to be here to talk to our members when they come along to the stand and it's been a really good day today. We've had lots of interesting and diverse conversations, and two, to put on the theatre so that we can actually educate people on what's coming up.
[00:05:34] Speaker A: Thank you so much. Emma Rowland, strategic sales director of Kerry logistics. Why are you at Multimodal? We're happy to be back at multimodal, seen as being very creative and innovative to provide solutions that work for our customers and it's great to meet them here in Birmingham. Expanding our upstream hubs offers great way to boost british businesses abroad and it's been great to discuss that here in person. Callum Bastok, CEO of CCL Logistics and technology, why are you at multimodal today?
[00:06:02] Speaker H: Well, Multimodal is one of the few exhibitions in the UK that really connects us with our target customer.
[00:06:10] Speaker A: And have you spoken to many of your customers here?
[00:06:12] Speaker H: Loads. There's lots of them. It's a really great way to meet potential customers and catch up with existing customers.
[00:06:19] Speaker A: Great, thank you so much.
[00:06:20] Speaker B: No problem.
[00:06:21] Speaker A: Carl Hobbis, member services director of Beefa so why are you at Multimodal today?
[00:06:26] Speaker H: Multimodal is a great opportunity for us to meet our members in one place. It's a great networking event. We've got full members who move goods around, around the world and also associate members here providing services to the industry. We've got the Bifur village right at the heart of it and it enables our members to just showcase their businesses. Most of our members are SME's 76%, in fact, small medium enterprises. And the Beefa village gives them a great opportunity to meet their clients, meet their suppliers, all in one place and in a central location with great network as well.
[00:07:04] Speaker A: So there you go. That was just a few of the people that I spoke to at multimodal and now the moment that I'm sure you've all been waiting for here is my very brief interview with Kevin Keegan. He was a very good sport and really entertained my logistics based questions. So here you go. I'm here with football legend Kevin Keegan. So, Kevin, you've played at Hamburg, Liverpool, Southampton and Newcastle, and I'm wondering, is there a reason that you chose these major port cities to play at?
[00:07:33] Speaker I: No, it wasn't until I realised at the end of my career that they were all major ports. Obviously, Hamburg, I didn't even know. I mean, I just went there to join the football team. But, of course, soon found out that it was one of the. I mean, major, major ports, obviously, in Germany and in the world. So, yeah, someone pointed that out to me and I thought, yeah, Liverpool, Newcastle, Southampton. Yeah, Hamburg. I think the only club I was ever involved with that wasn't was Fulham, when I managed. So, yeah, I missed out on a port there. There's not many ports in central London, is there?
[00:08:05] Speaker A: And. And you've been at multimodal before.
Have you learned anything about logistics since last time?
[00:08:12] Speaker I: Yeah, I think so. I mean, I think this is my third time, to be honest with you, so it's like a hat trick. Although I think last time I came, the fire alarm went off and we had to all go out, so hopefully that won't happen again. I do quite a lot in this industry. Anyway, this is probably over the years, probably eight or nine times I've worked with different companies, either on a single basis or like here, where there's awards, which. Which I really enjoy. It's lovely to see people worked hard all year and grown their businesses and kept the staff happy and delivered to all the customers being rewarded. So, yeah, it's one of the. One of the nicer ones. I do.
[00:08:58] Speaker A: Really hope you enjoyed that episode and what a wonderful guy Kevin is for agreeing to do that. I literally had to go up to him in between the starter and main course at dinner and I was like, Kevin, I'm so sorry, but would you mind being on my podcast? And he was so lovely, as you heard, and, yeah, did it without question. So a huge thank you to him for that and everyone else who agreed to be on it. It was so lovely to get to meet all these new people. There. Unfortunately, won't be a news in brief on Monday because I've just been so busy trying to get this together. But we'll be back the week after next, as per usual. Thank you so much for giving me your time and enjoy your weekend.
