Outline of the Global Addressing Summit

Global Addressing Summit being organized by the Consultative Committee of the UPU for April 23.  Save The Date.

It is a pleasure for me to report that the Consultative Committee work on the address is proceeding very quickly.  At the last Management Committee meeting on December 10 and 11, the Address Working Group brainstormed next steps for the Global Addressing Summit, and began blocking out the program and articulating topics.  This is not as easy as one would think, since we have no precedents to guide us.

The work then was delegated to a special committee of volunteers.  Through the generosity of Experian and its global conferencing facility, we conducted a 2-hour phone conference with Group Chair Steve Lopez, Experian, and Co-Chair Chris Powell  (Royal Mail)  in London and the rest of us from Brussels to lots of other places contributed ideas.

Save the date and come to Berne and the UPU on April 23 for the Global Addressing Summit. The Summit will focus on four aspects/subjects surrounding the physical address: the economic benefits of an address and address system, interoperability (think cross-border mail or post-private courier relations), customer perspectives (think  costs of redelivery and wasted mail), and standards.   We are focusing on private sector and business  use of and relationship to the address, and the economic  benefits thereof.  The committee is now hard at work seeking speakers and papers.   Speaker proposals, ideas, commentary may be sent to Editor@PrescottReport.com and we will see they reach the committee.

This will be the first of three Summits done under UPU auspices, with two more to follow.  Although not yet finalized, it is quite likely that one will be intended for a government audience and have more of a policy theme, and the third will be intended for an inter-governmental audience focused on development.  on a more institutional theme.

The format will be traditional: opening remarks by a Chairman-expert, four panels of experts, and hopefully a hosted luncheon and post-conference reception.  There will be a possibility for corporate support and table-top type display space may be available.   There will be a “built-in” audience of representatives of the world’s posts who are attending Postal Operations Council meetings that week, and Berne is an easy place to get to.  There will be no fee for attending, and hopefully hospitality will be generous.

In addition, the Committee is making a call for papers/works on any aspect of the subject of the address for inclusion in a special-purpose section of the UPU website, so that relevant materials on all aspects of the subject can be made available in one place for the benefit of those interested.  True, this will compete with The Prescott Report’s own library of materials, but we’re not concerned. This is too important for us to believe we can do it by ourselves. Please send contributions of materials, or ideas about materials that might be available from third parties, to  Ariane Proulx at ariane.PROULX@upu.int.

Appropriate subjects include, but are not limited to: building address systems-how-to and case studies; history of addressing; new technologies to employ to install or use address systems; geo-location;  institutional and commercial applications of addresses; UAA;  the environment and the address; substitutes for a postal address; weblinks to useful/informative sources;…..
Thoughts and suggestions may be sent to us here at Editor@PrescottReport.com or to ariane.proulx@upu.int.    Watch this space for further information.  If you wish to be kept informed by e-mail, let us know by emailing us.