Schedule of First WOA Community Convention - "A World of Opportunities"

Monday evening 7. October : Gather for our WOA ice-breaking reception at "the Pelgrom" : a medieval candle-lit beer cellar at three minutes walking distance from the Hilton conference hotel.  You can try a variety of Belgian beers and taste some Belgian specialties while you catch up with old friends and meet new business relations. After the reception, you will have the evening free to explore the attractions of the lively and cosmopolitan city of Antwerp.

Adres : Pelgrimstraat 15 - 2000 Antwerpen

Start : 18h30 - Finish : 20h30

Hilton Hotel Conference Area

WOA Chair Richard Hawkins and WOA Facilitator Erik Timmermans welcome you to this first WOA Community Convention.

Winner of 7 Grand Slams, 2 Master titles, World’s N° 1 tennis player during 117 weeks, Gold Medal at 2004 Olympics,… will take the audience on a fascinating journey to success in Sports, in Business, in Life...

There will be ample opportunity for Questions from the audience!

In the rapidly changing Working Capital and Factoring industries, we all need to keep learning and growing to remain competitive and in demand. How can we accomplish this? Mark Mandula and his team at UCF have grown their SME Funding and Working Capital solutions company by embracing a lifelong learning mindset that consists of several essential elements. These include:

• Focus on growth
• Become a serial master
• Stretch
• Own your development
• Do what you love! “IKIGAI”
• Stay vital

Mark's presentation aims to make us think about how we can stay relevant and grow throughout our business careers.

Sponsored by

and

Koen De Leus, Chief economist of BNP Paribas Fortis will discuss matters related to trade and related to finance. What is happening in World trade : China-US / US-Europe / globalisation and emerging trade corridors. But he will also discuss the state of digitalisation of the banking sector and the opportunities and threats of the digital revolution

Koen De Leus is an acclaimed speaker and authority in the Belgian financial landscape.

For a preview you can watch his interview in English conducted for be.brussels.

Mr.  Luc Arnouts, Vice President & Director International Relations and Networks, Port of Antwerp

Receivables and payables have key antecedents - Purchase Orders, Production, Transportation, Distribution, Shipment, Delivery...

The World of Open Account community focuses in the first place on all aspects related to "post-delivery". In this session, we want to look at the "whole picture" of international trade flows, including the preceding supply chain challenges and solutions. 

Welcome to the World of Open Trade!

Presentation and Panel discussion with a variety of participants in the Supply Chain.

Moderated by Anthony Brown. Confirmed panelists : Fabio Manca of Arviem (https://arviem.com/), Amaury Luyckx of Polytra N.V. part of Fracht Group (https://polytra.be/) and Tim Nicolle of Primadollar (https://www.primadollar.com/). 

Sponsored by

and

This session will be introduced and moderated by Steven van der Hooft.

Short 10 minute presentations, followed by interactive Q&A from a variety of disrupters/innovators in the area of Open Account Receivables Finance, SME Financing, Supply Chain Finance.

Companies & Presenters already confirmed:

• Cédric Teissier, Co-Founder and CEO Finexkap (France)
• Federico Travella, Founder and CEO Novicap (Spain, UK, Netherlands)
• Michael Guerin, Founder and CEO Clearport (USA)
• Margrith Lütschg-Emmenegger, CEO and Founder Octet Europe (Malta)
• Luuc Mannaerts, CEO October Nederland (Netherlands)
• Jörg Diewald, CCO SolarisBank (Germany)
• Jérôme Pezé, CEO Tinubu Square (France)

Sponsored by

and

Steve Box will address some of the major themes that should keep all professionals in the receivables finance space awake at night:

• the blurring edges between receivables finance, trade finance, overdraft... the future will be about secured working capital finance
• changing roles in leadership profiles
• technological evolution and disruption in invoice finance

Steve has a successful career of almost 40 years in receivables finance, both at HSBC and Bibby Financial Services.  His experience also covers Trade, Leasing, ABL and Banking. Today he consults various FinTechs in the space of working capital solutions. As one of WOA's steering panelists, Steve is the right man on the right place to kick off this final convention session.

• An interactive trip with participants:
  • What is happening in your markets? A guided tour around the world of community members
  • Discussion with Community Experts from the various WOA Learning Labs: what were your focus areas this year? What are your plans for next year?
• Where is WOA going? Q&A interactive session between the Board of WOA and the audience.
  • New opportunities?
  • New ambitions?
  • New plans?

Time to wrap up the First WOA Community Convention