Next month’s eagerly anticipated Coastlink conference is finalising its programme as expert speakers, panellists and delegates prepare to travel to the city of Hull on The Humber for the event on 6-7 May.
Against the context of an increasingly volatile global trade environment, industry professionals will gather to address the issues and opportunities around short sea and feeder shipping, as well as developments in the port intermodal transport networks that support the sector.
The 24th Coastlink conference will feature four open sessions each with a Q&A segment, and two panel discussions. Following welcomes from Chairman Nick Lambert, hosts ABP and Gold Sponsor the Port of Bilbao, Coastlink will lead off with an analysis of the multifaceted challenges confronting the short sea shipping sector.
Experts from DP World, Rotterdam Short Sea Terminals, Peel Ports Group and Toepfer Transport will address the session and examine risk mitigation strategies, adaptive business models and managing uncertainty.
Panellists from A2b-online, Clarksons Port Services, ABP, Port of Bilbao and BMT will then gather to assess the evolving shipper demands and operational requirements in RoRo and LoLo shipping.
Session 2 will address sustainable and resilient supply chain requirements with sector leaders from Port of Esbjerg, Port of Antwerp-Bruges, Automotive Maersk and ABP. A port tour courtesy of ABP is then available, before the Conference Dinner at Hull’s remarkable and award-winning aquarium The Deep.
Day two will look at the initiatives that are securing maritime and port operations; the practical implementation of artificial intelligence, digital twins and advanced analytics to create measurable operational improvements; and trends in logistic network expansion including inland waterway distribution.
