Leaders In Logistics Berlin 2025 Review

An unbiased and unsponsored review.

Leaders In Logistics was held in Berlin, Germany this year. Having never attended, I decided to check it out as a normal attendee, paying nearly approximately 2,000 EUR to attend.

By The Numbers

Attendees: ~625
Companies: ~250
Floor Exhibitors: ~36
Days: ~2.5
Location: Estrel Hotel, Berlin
Normal Attendee Cost: ~2,000 EUR

Who Goes There?

The event attracted parcel carriers, postal operators, cross border facilitators, fulfilment companies, technology providers, and some retailers.

Everyone was squarely focused on European domestic markets as the main purpose for attending. Crossborder was sparse.

With the high ticket price, most of the attendees were fairly senior which made for great conversation. It was more of an event for logistics companies to meet logistics companies.

Retailers and merchants, despite attending for free, were very high in demand on the conference floor. And yes this means that exhibitors and paying attendees are subsidizing merchants and retailers.

Location, Location, Location

The Estrel is conference hotel and was a great venue. The conference center was spacious, clean, modern, and had clear signage as well as coat checks, restrooms, and work areas. Most of the action, including lunches, refreshments, and 1 on 1's took place in the exhibitors hall, while 3 speaker tracks ran in parallel in adjacent and properly separated space.

The hotel rooms felt a little lower quality than a number of other conferences. Amenities such as water and slippers were not complimentary.

For anyone hoping to take in some sights, dining, or entertainment downstairs, there was nothing even remotely close by, and taxi’s in Berlin are not cheap, although not the most expensive either.

Opening Night Networking

The conference kicked off with a pre-event networking cocktail at the hotel which plenty of drinks, great canapes selection, and good service as a great venue. The downside was a lack of signage and a small window of 2 hours.

Large groups of attendees who already had a community there had organized dinner groups immediately after the drinks, but those who weren’t part of the community were left out. The lack of activities from the organizers to get strangers acquainted meant that new attendees to the event probably felt left out as their first impression of the conference.

Conference and Exhibition Floor

The conference format was 3 parallel speaker room tracks along with a main exhibitors floor. The hottest topic of the event was Out of Home (OOH) Delivery. OOH (aka PUDO) solutions were out in force on the conference floor. Speaker tracks allowed attendees to drop in and out of topics on fulfilment, parcel delivery, and innovation & technology.

I would suggest that there could be more meeting corners for attendees to sit and chat away from the bustle of the exhibition floor. Also, the 2 smaller speaker spaces could have more signage as there were a little farther than one would expect from the exhibition hall.

Cocktail Party: The Real Main Event

The main event cocktail was very well organized and at a fantastic venue. The main improvements I would recommend are better food and providing at least seats for guests to lounge. For me this the fun is always the best part.

Food Review

There was plenty of food for both days and unlimited drink fridges throughout.

Light breakfast

Coffee, teas, breads, fruits

Buffet line style lunch

Hot food was mediocre, but not bad. Selection was small, but sufficient.

Small salad and cold cuts bar while small in selection, was good in quality and hit the spot.

It was a big miss to not have convenient spaces for people to eat their lunches. I saw people going far off to find places to sit and eat, eating in strange nooks and crannies where they could set down their food, awkwardly trying to eat at exhibitors tables, or just staking over the 1:1 tables. A huge networking opportunity was lost by not having many more standing tables for attendees to eat at.

Refreshments and snacks

Coffee, teas, fruits, pastries

No Dinner Provided

Believe it or not there was no dinner provided ever. That’s because Opening Night cocktail had canapes, but no dinner. Day 1 cocktail was the same, and Day 2 ended before dinner. For an event that cost 2,000 EUR this felt particularly cheap. Fortunately the 1st night we tried the Italian restaurant at the hotel. I thought it was good, but everyone at my table was a critic, and had been to Italy, and told me that the food was bad.

Worth It?

Quality wise, the conference was well organized. For the price, however, and given that I was subsidizing some retailers’ tickets, and was not given any opportunities to meet said retailers, it felt like it was not worth it.

For someone like myself who already partners with most of carriers and postal operators globally, it's less about meeting new people and more about maintaining existing relationships, which I don’t need to spend 2,000 EUR + travel and lodging to do.

That said, I believe that everyone should attend at least one event like Leaders In Logistics per year, so the question is how many of these should we be attending? What's really the difference between LIL and a number of other similar conferences?

Next years' event is in Brussels March 17, 18. Who's going? Who's skipping?