PostalVision 2020/4.0 to Explore New Delivery Models and Digital Innovations in a Rapidly Expanding E-Commerce World

WASHINGTON, Feb. 5, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- There is only one commercial American enterprise that includes every citizen and resident as a customer. It's the U.S. Postal Service. Yet given a declining need for letter delivery on the one hand and an increasing need for e-commerce driven parcel delivery on the other, the nation's residential delivery ecosystem is facing a critical challenge to serve growing consumer expectations for greater speed, privacy, security and trust. The nation's postal delivery ecosystem needs to be re-envisioned and new systems put into place to accommodate changing 21^st century societal demands. 

That's the focus of the fourth annual PostalVision 2020 Conference (www.postalvision2020.com) that will host experts from around the U.S. and the world April 10-11, at the Westin City Center in Washington, D.C. 

Attendees and speakers will include some of the world's most innovative e-merchants, digital communicators and logistics innovators as well as organizations involved in traditional mailing and shipping such as financial institutions, direct advertisers, catalogers, third-party software and transportation service providers. The event is supported at the highest levels by private industry and the public sector. Leading sponsors include eBay, DHL Global Mail, Pitney Bowes, and Accenture.  The conference will include experts from across the U.S. as well as from Italy, Germany, Austria, United Kingdom, Australia and China. The U.S. and more than 200 other countries – whose postal systems are co-dependent – make up a global delivery network for the Universal Postal Union. 

John Callan, founder of The PostalVision 2020 Initiative and managing director of Ursa Major Associates, said, "The global delivery ecosystem is being re-shaped in response to the rapid growth of e-commerce. E-commerce giant Amazon is driving many new logistics initiatives that raise the bar for all delivery competitors by serving more consumers with more service options like free domestic, same-day, Sunday, grocery, locker box and international delivery choices." He added, "Our industry has to transform the way mail and parcels will be delivered in the near future and beyond.  At PostalVision 2020/4.0 everything will be on the table - from traditional household mailbox delivery to cluster and locker boxes, drone delivery and digital security and we will be hearing from the operators and innovators that are creating new models and reinventing the ecosystem."

Early registration pricing is available until February 28 at www.postalvision2020.com.  Speakers will include:

• Jeff Jarvis, author of Public Parts: How Sharing in the Digital Age Improves the Way We Work and Live and What Would Google Do
• Andreas Raptopoulos, founder and CEO of Matternet
• Nagisa Manabe, chief marketing and sales officer and executive vice president, USPS
• Randy Miskanic vice president, secure digital solutions, USPS
• David Williams, inspector general, USPS
• Mark Shearer executive vice president and president, SMB mailing solutions, Pitney Bowes Inc
• Brody Buhler, managing director - global postal lead, Accenture.
• Brian Bieron, executive director of eBay's Connected Commerce Policy Lab
• Peer Bentzen, EVP product management - E-post, Deutsche Post AG
• Ulisee Del Gallo, Posteitaliane, Italy
• Walter Gritzner and Martin Schwarz, Keba, Austria
• Richard Li, senior vice president and chief marketing officer, 4PX Information Technology Group of China
• Ahmed Haider and Matthew Sweeny, co-founders of Flirtey, Australian drone delivery company.
• Chris Curro and Henry Wang, student inventors of eco-friendly and cost-efficient Rapid Package Container at Cooper Union.

About the PostalVision 2020 Initiative

The PostalVision 2020 Initiative is an effort, started in 2010, to challenge private industry and government to explore new operating models for delivering mail and parcels in an increasingly digitally dependent society. It is an open and independent initiative designed to engage all appropriate parties in improvement of the system. PostalVision 2020 is the creation of Ursa Major Associates, LLC, a strategy consultancy based in Essex, CT. For more information, contact John Callan, Managing Director of Ursa Major Associates and founder of the PostalVision 2020 Initiative, at 860-767-0709 or [email protected].

SOURCE PostalVision 2020