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FEDESSA Online Conference 2020 - On Demand
Speakers
We have a huge line up of speakers including well known business people as well as industry experts.



Carl August Ameln (52) is the founder of City Self-Storage (now listed on Oslo Stock Exchange), EuroBox, HyrBox and Lovespace. He is also the cofounder of StoreBox in the UK and Ireland. Carl also is a partner in Trastering in Spain and GardeTout in France. Carl was also the founding investor in Zipcar UK. See www.firstriskcapital.com for more information.
Sessions
Developing valet storage models Wednesday @ 9:45 AM
Watch all sessions On Demand Thursday @ 9:00 AM


Denis has more than 7 years experience in digital marketing and sales (at Google and outside). He is currently an industry manager at Google UK, based in London. He helps large advertisers across different industries to build their digital marketing strategy and grow their business. Self-storage is one of the industries among others which he covers. He was previously an account manager in Google Ireland, responsible for the growth of some of the largest retailers, managing department stores, private brands, luxury and high street brands. He has spoken to self storage operators at SSA UK events on how they can increase their leads and conversions by better managing their Google AdWords and other services.
Sessions
Making Google work for you Tuesday @ 2:30 PM
Watch all sessions On Demand Thursday @ 9:00 AM


Peter has been CEO of Lagerbox since 2001, focusing not only on the management of LAGERBOX but also on marketing and finance. In 1997, he discovered his passion for self storage and has grown Lagerbox to be one of the major operators in Germany. Driving the business through innovation and astute development.
Sessions
Growing an independent store to a major national operator Wednesday @ 2:15 PM
Watch all sessions On Demand Thursday @ 9:00 AM



Cris Burnam has been in the self-storage industry since 1987, serving as President of StorageMart since 1999. Headquartered in Columbia, Missouri, StorageMart is the largest privately owned company in the industry, with 225 locations across the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom, comprising approximately 15,000,000 net rentable square feet and over 134,000 rental units. Currently, as Chief Executive Officer, Cris oversees all aspects of the organization.
In 2015, Cris and the executive team at StorageMart successfully closed on the largest ever completed self-storage CMBS transaction, which was in excess of $500 million dollars. In addition, the team closed other debt financings of $510 million dollars in 2015 for a total of $1.010 billion dollars in new debt, thus successfully recapitalizing StorageMart and positioning the company for future growth.
Cris has been recognized as EY Entrepreneur of the Year for 2014, and was also given the 2014 Torch Award by the Better Business Bureau. Cris is listed as one of Ingram’s Magazine of One of 50 Missourians You Should Know and has been a member of the Forbes Real Estate Council since 2018. In 2008, Cris led the company in its successful $416 million dollar takeover of InStorage REIT, a publicly traded REIT on the Toronto Stock Exchange. The transaction closed in March of 2009, and has since been fully integrated in StorageMart.
In 1994, Cris and his brother Mike Burnam launched an IPO of their family owned company called Storage Trust (NYSE:SEA). Storage Trust was successfully merged into Public Storage in 1999 for approximately $650 million dollars. Over the course of his career in self-storage, Cris has completed over $5.5 billion dollars in self-storage transactions. Under Cris’ direction, StorageMart has been a thought leader in the industry, forging the way with many industry firsts, like online reservations, a 24/7 contact center, and harnessing voice technology to improve the customer journey.
Sessions
Global Storage Panel Tuesday @ 11:00 AM
Watch all sessions On Demand Thursday @ 9:00 AM


James Caan founded in 2004 the private equity firm Hamilton Bradshaw (HB) and joined the panel of heavyweight investors for BBC’s Dragons' Den in 2007. James Caan is one of the UK’s most successful and dynamic entrepreneurs.
Sessions
Scaling business and the importance of technology and social media in business Wednesday @ 9:00 AM
Watch all sessions On Demand Thursday @ 9:00 AM


Kevin is determined to build up a “Brand” when he first started the business. He believed the motto of “Do it from heart”, only the honesty and sincerity can sustain customer base. As Store Friendly expanded to 10 branches, he discovered the bottle neck of expansion and management difficulty, so he implemented the “Franchise” concept into the company. This gave the company an inspiring outcome; 80 franchisees have joined the company in 5 years! Then on, Store Friendly became a household name.
New concept and strategy are very important for the growth of a company. Kevin found that red wine is gaining popularity in Hong Kong; the need of space to store boxes of wine increased the demand of storages. Hence, the first Wine Self Storage for Store Friendly established in 2011 and the Store Friendly Records Management Storage was started to provide service in 2012. Moreover, Store Friendly is proudly to announce Store Friendly GO to be the first storage service in the world to introduce having intelligent robots to help managing the storing service. We aim to provide excellent service and hope to bring excellent experience to customers to enjoy the new technology, while paying no effort on managing their goods.
Sessions
Global Storage Panel Tuesday @ 11:00 AM
Watch all sessions On Demand Thursday @ 9:00 AM


Sessions
Maximising the value of your business Wednesday @ 2:45 PM
Watch all sessions On Demand Thursday @ 9:00 AM


Dave is a well-known and accomplished self storage professional with over 20 years experience in the industry. He spent 17 years at executive board level at Safestore, joining them when they had 15 stores and 40 employees. As a member of the Management Buy Out Team in 2004 and the IPO Team in 2008, he played a major role in the companies success and its growth to a FTSE 250 company, with over 580 employees, 134 stores and revenues of £112m and EBITDA of £64m. Dave was also Managing Director of Space Maker Self Storage (12 stores) for 6 years before it was acquired by Safestore 2016. He is passionate about self storage, the people who work in it and the customers who use it and believes the key to a successful self storage business are the people. Recruiting staff with the right skills, growing their potential through effective coaching and support with the right strategy, an effective sales process, a customer led culture and empowerment to make the right decisions is paramount to both individual and business optimisation. His unique set of knowledge, skills and practical hands on experience has proved invaluable to many businesses in the self storage sector. He is also a current Board member of the SSA UK.
Sessions
3 mistakes operators make with pricing Wednesday @ 10:45 AM
Watch all sessions On Demand Thursday @ 9:00 AM

Christine DeBord
Vice President of the Smart Entry & Facility Automation Division, Janus International

Christine DeBord is the Vice President of the Smart Entry & Facility Automation Division at Janus International, the leading global provider of doors, hallways, and automation technology to the self-storage industry. DeBord has a wealth of knowledge and experience with self-storage access control and technology and has spent five years in various sales and marketing leadership roles within the industry. Prior to joining the Janus International team in 2018, DeBord was the head of marketing for PTI Security Systems. In addition to her role as VP of the Smart Entry & Facility Automation division, DeBord leads the marketing team at Janus International Group for all companies and business units.
Sessions
Technology in Security Wednesday @ 3:15 PM
Watch all sessions On Demand Thursday @ 9:00 AM


Peter Doman is the Broking and Sales Director at Basil Fry & Company. Peter joined the company in 2007 and has been the driving force behind Basil Fry’s self storage portfolio over the last decade.
With an operations and training background Peter understands the needs of self storage Operators and from 2016 to 2020 was a member of the SSA UK Board acting as the elected Supplier Board Member.
Outside of work, Peter lives in Southampton with his wife and daughter, is a keen tennis player, enjoys the odd round of golf, and virus dependant has a passion for travel.
Sessions
Insurance Panel Wednesday @ 11:15 AM
Watch all sessions On Demand Thursday @ 9:00 AM


Taking a break from his roles on I'm a Celebrity... Get Me out of Here! Now, ‘Aviva Premiership Rugby Highlights’ and Sky 1’s ‘The Match’ and passing up a much higher paid job offer to host a massively prestigious event just because he loved his time with the self storage industry so much last time. Mark injects a level of humour into the event while keeping things on track and managing all the questions from the audience.
Sessions
Welcome Tuesday @ 8:45 AM
Watch all sessions On Demand Thursday @ 9:00 AM


Jim Gibson was a member of the founding management team of Big Yellow Self Storage in 1998. Big Yellow Self Storage opened its first store in Richmond in May 1999 and 21 years later owns and manages 75 Big Yellow Self Storage centres in the UK across 5.7 million sq ft NLA. Big Yellow Self Storage also manages 25 Armadillo stores across a 1.0 m sq ft platform. Big Yellow Self Storage is listed as a REIT on the London Stock Exchange in the FTSE 250.
Jim originally qualified as a chartered accountant and worked in professional services with Arthur Andersen & Co. where he specialised in the property and construction sectors, before leaving in 1989. He then worked in real estate at Heron Property Corporation until 1994, before joining Nick Vetch and Philip Burks at Edge Properties. Edge was a developer of and investor in retail warehousing and sold to Granchester Properties PLC in 1998. Together, they then founded Big Yellow Self Storage.
Sessions
Global Storage Panel Tuesday @ 11:00 AM


Sessions
Developing brands and customer loyalty through creativity and emerging technologies. Tuesday @ 11:45 AM
Watch all sessions On Demand Thursday @ 9:00 AM


Sam joined the company in 1991 when they had just 8 locations, then in 1995 he succeeded Neville and became Managing Director. The company had 14 locations at this time. Having worked running storage centres initially, Sam developed skills in property acquisition and development of self storage. KSS acquired its major competitor, Millers Self Storage, in 2004, which more than doubled the size of the business instantly. In 2007, the company entered the New Zealand market, where it now has 8 locations.
KSS is the largest private owner-operator of self storage in Australasia. The family company wholly-owns the majority of centres under its brand, while also offering self storage management for select investors.
Sessions
Global Storage Panel Tuesday @ 11:00 AM
Watch all sessions On Demand Thursday @ 9:00 AM


English version: Christel Land is a popular business coach/consultant and an experienced sales and marketing trainer with extensive experience working in the self storage industry. She regularly delivers sales and marketing training sessions for the SSA UK and FEDESSA. She has worked at a store level, local management level (Operations, Marketing) and central management (IT Manager) at City Self-Storage. She is also certified in various different coaching techniques, has worked as a full time business coach and currently teaches international coaching certifications. Christel is also the author of the only book to date on sales in the self-storage industry. Combining her engaging training style with an enormous amount of industry knowledge, Christel will give you all the tools you need to grow your sales skills and improve your performance.
Spanish version: Christel Land es una conocida coach y consultora de negocios y una formadora en de marketing y ventas con amplia experiencia en el sector del Self Storage. Habitualmente realiza formaciones de ventas y marketing para SSA IK y FEDESSA. Ha desarrollado su carrera tanto a nivel de tienda ( Operaciones y Marketing) como a nivel de gestión central ( Responsable de Tecnología de la Información) Al combinar su atractivo estilo de formación con un enorme conocimiento de la industria, Christel le ofrecerá todas las herramientas que necesita para desarrollar sus habilidades de ventas y mejorar trabajo.
Sessions
Growth Beyond Google Tuesday @ 3:15 PM
Watch all sessions On Demand Thursday @ 9:00 AM


Sessions
Is the economy stuffed? Wednesday @ 11:45 AM
Watch all sessions On Demand Thursday @ 9:00 AM


Sessions
Insurance Panel Wednesday @ 11:15 AM
Watch all sessions On Demand Thursday @ 9:00 AM


Sessions
Technology in Security Wednesday @ 3:15 PM
Watch all sessions On Demand Thursday @ 9:00 AM


Sessions
State of the industry Tuesday @ 10:00 AM
Watch all sessions On Demand Thursday @ 9:00 AM


Ryan has worked in the insurance industry for 37 years having worked for both insurers and brokers and achieved chartered qualified status back in 1993. Ryan has specialised in insuring self storage and removals companies since 2002 and attended his first FEDESSA conference back in 2003 in Manchester. Since being involved in insuring the self storage sector Ryan has insured operators in the UK, Europe, USA and Asia and has expert knowledge on all relevant policy covers applicable to the business. Ryan has assisted numerous operators via training on the subject of insuring customers goods in store and making sure that the business is fully protected from customer claims while at the same time maximising operators income from insurance sales.
Sessions
Insurance Panel Wednesday @ 11:15 AM


Sessions
Technology in Security Wednesday @ 3:15 PM
Watch all sessions On Demand Thursday @ 9:00 AM


Sessions
How businesses can learn from achieving teams in sport. Tuesday @ 9:00 AM
Watch all sessions On Demand Thursday @ 9:00 AM