The IFSF 2024 Annual Conference, held on 13–14 November at the beautiful Pestana Douro Riverside Hotel in Portugal, proved to be a landmark event for the fuel and convenience retail industry. With the theme ‘Driving the Future – Innovations & Standards in Sustainable Fuelling,’ the conference welcomed a wealth of delegates from across the sector and was hailed as a huge success.
The two-day gathering brought together industry leaders, innovators, and thought leaders to explore cutting-edge developments shaping the future of sustainable fuelling. Highlights included engaging keynote presentations, interactive sessions, and networking opportunities that sparked lively discussions and inspired action.
Key Moments from the Conference
– Service Stations of the Future. Energise with Tech: innovating for tomorrow. Sofia Tenreiro, Partner at Deloitte, set the stage by exploring the future of Mobility and Energy Retail. She talked about the transformation that the industry is undergoing in terms of the shift to alternative fuels, the change in customer expectations and how technology is revolutionising business models. She highlighted the importance of switching from a vehicle-centric to customer-centric approach and leveraging the latest technology to deliver hyper-personalised customer experiences. She explained how service stations are evolving into mobility hubs offering new value-added services and highlighted how standards can help reduce the complexity of integrating these new services and technologies.
– Global Retail Innovations from Around the World. Mark Wholtmann, NACS Global Director moderated the conference and shared his expert insights on the trends that are impacting the industry around the world and how retailers can innovate to stay ahead of the game. He talked about the top strategic issues facing the industry and shared best practices in terms of food service, site architecture, new products, technology and customer experiences.
– Navigating the Future: The Imperative of Industry Standards. Ferenc Both, Director of Retail Technology at ExxonMobil shared the ExxonMobil global outlook for energy through 2050 and explained that energy demand for transportation will continue to grow globally albeit with a shift towards more sustainable and efficient use. He highlighted the emergence of new entrants and innovative solutions and shared his view that as the ecosystem complexity continues to grow, flexibility will be a critical enabler and differentiator. He dispelled the myth that proprietary integration can be used to lock-in customers and shared his views on the benefits of standardisation including simplification of integration, reduced cost of ownership and enabling companies to focus on developing capabilities that provide sustainable competitive advantage!
– Unleashing Growth and Sustainability with IFSF! Alex Sanchez, Lead Business IT Infrastructure Expert at Q8 shared two case studies of how Q8 have used IFSF standards to efficiently grow their payments business. The first example was an opportunity to close a deal with one of Europe’s biggest transporters allowing the company to sell 100M litres of fuel. The project was undertaken during the challenging times of the Covid pandemic but was delivered successfully in 3 months due to the combination of outstanding teamwork and the ability to leverage well defined standards to integrate with their partners. The second example highlighted how Q8 are able to grow their card payment acceptance across thousands of stations having implemented more than 60 integrations with third party issuers and partner companies using IFSF standards. Alex finished with a call to action for companies to join IFSF and actively participate in the work groups to help develop the standards needed in the future.
– Moving from a Vehicle-Centric to Customer-Centric Market. Jan Harmen Akkerman, CEO at TanQyou and Moveyou shared his unique perspectives as both a Fuel Retailer and Digital Mobility Platform services provider. He highlighted the need to diversify and grow your business and that to do that you need to know your customers and their needs. This, coupled with a good digital strategy will enable you to implement technology solutions that meet your customers evolving expectations. He concluded by sharing four factors to a successful future; Standardisation of protocols, be open in API’s, be agnostic and work together!
– IFSF Reference Architecture and Roadmap. Jon Thompson, IFSF Strategy Manager, started by introducing the IFSF Reference Architecture as a tool to “clarify the world we operate in and how we aim to serve our members”. He showed the interactions between the main domains including administering site sales, operating the forecourt and processing cards, payments and loyalty. He then demonstrated how the reference architecture can be combined with overlays to highlight different aspects such as where IFSF standards fit into the logical view of forecourt operations and sales transaction functions. He shared a summary of the two horizon scan assessments carried out by IFSF earlier this year into the key emerging topics of ‘SEPA Instant Payments’ and ‘Mobility Hubs’ and noted that the full reports can be found on the IFSF website. He concluded by sharing the IFSF roadmap of initiatives for the next three years.
– IFSF EV Charging Payments White Paper. Ian Brown, IFSF EFT Work Group Chair, presented an overview of the white paper that he drafted in collaboration with the Open Charge Alliance and the EV Roaming Foundation. The target audience for the paper are fuel retail merchants who own and operate EV charging stations across multiple retail sites and who want to leverage their existing payment infrastructure. Ian gave an in-depth explanation of how to use IFSF payment standards in conjunction with the OCPI and OCPP standards to support bank and fuel card payment at EV charging stations with full integration with existing loyalty solutions. With the implementation of the European Alternative Fuels Infrastructure Regulations (AFIR), Ian’s presentation generated a lot of interest from the audience and he encouraged the delegates to read the full white paper which is available on the IFSF website and to join the upcoming EFT work group meetings to learn more about the work that IFSF is doing in this area.
– Driving innovation & enhancing competitiveness through the use of IFSF standards. Rui Dias, Product Manager at Petrotec, kicked off day two of the conference by sharing how Petrotec are driving innovation and enhancing competitiveness for the entire mobility value chain, empowered by the use of IFSF and OpenRetailing standards. He challenged the perception that standardisation can be in contradiction with innovation. He provided multiple examples of how using IFSF forecourt, security, payment and loyalty standards enable Petrotec to focus on innovating and delivering differentiated solutions that bring added value and efficiency for their customers. Examples included their multi-media pumps, forecourt controllers, POS and indoor payment terminals, outdoor payment terminals, Hydrogen dispensers and EV chargers. Leveraging open standards, Petrotec are well placed to deliver the required solutions for the mixed multi energy forecourts of the future.
– Supercharging the OpenRetailing Data Dictionary using Gen AI. David Ezell, Director of new initiatives at Conexxus, shared the work that he has been doing to make the joint IFSF and Conexxus (OpenRetailing) Data Dictionary more useful and powerful. He opened by explaining the benefits of the Data Dictionary such as an improved software development environment and easier interoperability between organisations leading to a reduction in the total cost of ownership. He shared the plans for making improvements to the Data Dictionary including text searching based on hierarchical naming and cross references. Finally, he demonstrated the power of GenAI using a semantic query interface leveraging a large language model to enable developers to fast track the creation of new APIs that comply with the standard Data Dictionary model.
– Interactive Working Sessions, Work Group Updates and API Simulator Demos. As always at the IFSF conference, there was excellent engagement and collaboration amongst the delegates as the IFSF team shared what they had been working on during the past year and sought input on the work plans and priorities for the year ahead.
Thank You to the Sponsors
The success of the IFSF 2024 conference was made possible with the generous support of our sponsors: Petrotec, OrionTech, and RapidRMS. Their contributions and shared commitment to driving innovation in the industry were invaluable.
Memorable Networking Opportunities
Beyond the insightful presentations and discussions, delegates enjoyed a cultural highlight with an exclusive tour and dinner at Taylor’s Port Cellars. This unique experience provided a relaxed setting for further networking while celebrating the heritage of Portugal’s iconic port wine.
Looking Ahead
The IFSF extends its heartfelt thanks to all delegates, speakers, and sponsors who contributed to the success of this year’s event. Together, we’ve set a strong foundation for continued collaboration and innovation in driving the future of sustainable fuelling.
Stay tuned for updates on next year’s conference and IFSF’s ongoing initiatives. Let’s keep the momentum going!
