USC was also at the Self Storage Conference in Milan
AISI, the Italian association of self storage operators, again held its annual Self Storage Conference in Milan, with many operators from all over Europe in attendance. USC was there, of course, and Jan-Hein shares his experiences.
Successful show
“I look back on a very successful show. The AISI has chosen a new, very easily accessible venue, a bit further from the otherwise very attractive Milan city center. We found it special that the show was organized on Saturday, a less common day for sponsors. The reason is that Italian operators often run their self-storage venues themselves. They would have to close them if the show were held during the week. A good decision by the organization, because the attendance was at least one and a half times higher than last year.”
USC facilitates
“We were very warmly received again this year, especially since many parties already know USC. We noticed from everything that Italy is about ready for storage containers to expand their current storage capabilities. One point of attention is the Italian bureaucracy, which can sometimes take a long time before the necessary permits are issued. We as USC would like to facilitate this. For example, we can draw up a sustainability report, organize knowledge transfer towards the government or draw up customer profiles. In this way, we can work together with our customers to ensure that that permit gets there as soon as possible and people can start placing storage containers.”
Presentation
“I gave a presentation on how to maximize your profits with storage containers. We had subtitled this one in Italian. We had also translated the handouts of the presentation and handed them out in advance. The audience responded enthusiastically. We will try to make our translations even better.
Last year during the summer we had already done a tour of Italy visiting various parties including Maurizio Allio of Casaforte and Giovanni Tronchin of Self Storage Milano Est. By the way, Giovanni also had some great moments or the stage. The audience was very interested in his story regarding his self-storage location.
At the show, we saw above all that the Italian storage market is changing. The AISI and its members are working hard to put self-storage on the map in a professional manner. We have found that great strides have been made in this regard and we should be proud of that.
At the end of the day, I was interviewed by AISI. Once this video is posted online, we will share it on our socials.
So, in short, I traveled back home with a very good feeling, and did so together with Marc Barth, owner of Store-IT that develops software systems for the self-storage market and has many Italian customers. In short, it was very enjoyable!