The Docks the Future Midterm Conference titled “Envisioning the Port of the Future: the 2030 horizon, took place today (4th April) in Trieste, hosted by the Port Network Authority of the Eastern Adriatic Sea, counting with over 100 participants.
The conference represented the turning point to present the project results achieved thus far, validating concepts, topics and targets for the Port of the Future.
The Midterm Conference began with a warm welcome from Zeno D’Agostino, President of the Port Network Authority of the Eastern Adriatic Sea. The Conference held panels on the future competitiveness of European ports, including topics such as global climate mitigation strategy and the Suez Canal after the recent expansion. The Conference set up a focus about Baltic Sea Region (BSR) transport & logistics foresight study and a general outlook of maritime traffic flows by 2030. Two inspiring keynote speeches were made during the morning session by IMO’ s Anthon Rodes and DG Move’s Rafal Stanecki, covering IMOS’s climate mitigation strategy and the global MTCC Network (GMN) and the European ports policy and the ports services regulation respectively.
The conference continued with several technical sessions on technologies, processes and capacity building actions, with the participation of high-level experts in the port domain, including the ones already part of the Port of the Future Network (DocksTheFuture, Corealis, PortForward and Pixel). During the Afternoon Session, a panel focusing on Regional Focus about “Ports of Trieste Vision 2030” was organised, presenting Trieste’s various EU projects related to their development to “Smart Port” and the relevant ICT Strategy of the Port Network Authority of the Eastern Adriatic Sea.
The conference was an outstanding moment that will contribute for the DocksTheFuture results, with a torrent of ideas, reflections, interpretations, visions and contributions from different stakeholders about what kind of challenges the ports will have to face in the near future and how ports should be prepared for the existing challenges.
The event’s discussions highlighted the multitude of existing challenges for the future of the competitiveness of the European Ports, focusing in 3 different domains – Ports integration, Ports infrastructures and ports integration and hinterlands logistics: simplification, digitalisation and automation of processes, electrification, smart grids, port-city interface, decarbonisation (use of renewable energy management, zero emissions, energy transitions), shipping capacity, environment and sustainability.
The focus of the future will be on the development of new technologies and services, research and innovation, processes’ capacity building, new business models, governance and funding, with one final objective, the future competitiveness of the European ports.
Here is the link where you can download all presentations:
Below are some pictures taken from the MidTerm Conference:
