15th February 2011
A series of seminars organised by The Shippers’ Voice at Multimodal 2011 – the UK’s premier event for the shipping and transport industries – will tackle the problem of keeping ahead of new trends and developments in the industry without getting overwhelmed by too much information.
The seminars will be moderated by Dr Andrew Traill, MD of the Shippers’ Voice. He commented: “In today’s multimedia world, it is easy to feel bogged down by information overload, and yet keeping abreast of developing trends, new regulations, and the changing needs of global customers, is vital to staying on top”.
The interactive seminars will form an integral part of the event, which this year is taking place from 5th to 7th April at the NEC, Birmingham. They will feature panel discussions and case study presentations from industry experts including shippers and suppliers.
Day one on Tuesday 5th April will look at news and what makes news – a media panel of editors and media professionals will examine how stories are chosen to make the headlines, and how to read between the lines. The panel will consist of Kizzi Nkwocha, Editor of International Freighting Weekly; Robert Minton-Taylor, Senior Lecturer Leeds University; Emma Murray, Editor of Heavy Lift and Project Forwarding International (HLPFI); and John Manners Bell – CEO, Transport Intelligence.
In the afternoon, there will be a presentation on the TAILgate project – a government-funded logistics search engine promoting sustainable choices in freight transport procurement. The speakers will be Brian Bolam, founder and president of OmPrompt and Vice Chairman of the European Logistics Users Providers and Enablers Group (ELUPEG) and Stephen Rinsler, Director, Bisham Consulting. Stephen Rinsler explained, “’Our objective is to facilitate a significant reduction in empty or part-loaded running of vehicles through informed choice and better use of rail, short sea and coastal transport”.
The second day on 6th April will feature a discussion on security issues, providing up- to-date information on the latest security drives, including new air freight regulations in the wake of last year’s Yemeni bomb plot. It will consider what transport and shipping organisations should be doing to improve security, and where to find more information on security requirements. The panellists will include: Ivor Llewelyn, Director, ILSolutions; Juha Hintsa, Senior Researcher, University of Lausanne and Cross-Border Research Association; and Marcus Hallside, CEO, Innovative Compliance.
Dr Traill commented: “This is a good example of how the Shippers’ Voice clarifies issues affecting the industry. Over the past year there have been some major developments in security, and they affect almost all shippers in some way, but how many know in what way they affect them, how they are continuing to develop in the short term, and what they should be doing right now?”
The afternoon session will include a panel discussion on Container Swaps entitled “Demystifying Derivatives” It will look at using container swaps to manage freight risk, including an introduction to derivatives, the Shanghai Containerised Freight Index, what container swaps are, and how they work – giving a working example. The panellists will include: Cherry Wang of ACM/GFI Group; Michael Rainsford, of Morgan Stanley Commodities; Isabella Kurek-Smith from LCH Clearnet and Philip Damas of Drewry.
The series will conclude on 7th April with a seminar on how technology can cope with the information overload led by Philip Lavin, Mark Brannan and Claire Umney, AEB (International) Ltd, followed by a tutorial on the development of portcentric logistics.
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To register and find out more about Multimodal 2011 please visit www.multimodal.org.uk