International conference in Gdansk - Autologistics Central Europe 2005

23.06.2005

On June 21-22, Gdansk was playing host to a 2-day international conference Autologistics Central Europe 2005. The first event of such a wide-ranging scale and importance ever organized in Poland, the conference focused on the world automotive industry. The Artus Court, situated in the most representative historic centre of Gdansk, gathered over a hundred high-profile delegates from the world's major car manufacturers, their suppliers and the leading players in the field of motor vehicle haulage: multi-modal operators, logistics companies and shipowners specialized in the shipment of cars. On behalf of the Port of Gdansk Authority SA and the City of Gdansk - the premier sponsors of the conference - the delegates received a welcome address from Andrzej Kasprzak, the President of the Board of the Port of Gdansk Authority SA. He emphasized, among other things, the significance of the conference as a stimulus to development of the port and the city, and expressed his belief that the participants to the conference would not only return here the following year to attend another meeting, but also become connected with Gdansk and the Port of Gdansk by business relations.

This is already the sixth conference in the series of Autologistics. The previous editions were held in Chicago, Detroit, Shanghai and Montreaux. The conference in Gdansk is the first of the kind to take place in this part of Europe. According to the organizers of Autologistics - promoting the conference in Central Europe came as a result of considerable interest in this region developed by car manufacturers, their suppliers, as well as logistics companies. The industry management regards the region of Central and Eastern Europe as the area of tremendous challenges and, at the same time, opportunities - claim representatives of the conference organizer of Autologistics Central Europe. They also add that Poland is recognized as the seat of a large number of companies operating in the automotive field, that expect to rapidly expand their businesses.

- The choice of a particular city for us to organize our conferences is invariably determined by an excellent location and the opportunity to present an attractive offer tailored to the interests of our trade, adds Jeremy Richardson, representative of the Automotive Logistics organizer. Gdansk superbly fulfills these conditions: the thousand years old history of the city on the one hand, combined with the Port of Gdansk that could provide services to the entire central and eastern region in terms of automotive industry - on the other.

The conference was moderated by Louis Yiakoumi, Conference Director of Automotive Logistics, whilst one of the speakers during the first day of the conference was Danuta Bilat, Head of the Shipping Development and Tariffs Department in the Port of Gdansk Authority SA. The second day of the conference Autologistics Central Europe 2005 saw the delegates pay a visit the Port of Gdansk where they met with, among others, representatives of the port operating company Port of Gdansk Cargo Logistics.