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Air Cargo Handling (ACH) Conference 2013 strengthens its solution-focused approach thanks to new ties with COAG

The Air Cargo Handling (ACH) Conference 2013 takes place from 25th-27th September in the enchanting city of Lisbon, within the five-star city-centre Tivoli Lisboa Hotel.

The event maintains the popular format of short presentations and extended panel discussions featuring key industry decision-makers, followed by active working groups. The conference has evolved once again this year in line with the latest developments in the sector, the views of its senior practitioners, and the event’s strengthening ties with other respected industry organisations, such as IATA’s Cargo Operations Advisory Group (COAG).

Indeed, the event in Lisbon has been aligned with a meeting of COAG in the Portuguese capital the previous day, allowing members of this key committee to participate in the ACH and share the highlights of these latest COAG discussions in the first ACH conference session on Thursday 26th September. This is expected to include an update on some substantial progress COAG has made towards a set of simple standards that it hopes can be adopted across the industry.

Solution-focused sessions

Underlining the practical and solution-focused nature of the ACH Conference, the final panel session will see key COAG committee members reviewing the issues raised within the conference and working groups and discussing whether and how they can be taken forward by the COAG committee for further development and action. The aim is to make the event a platform to bring about positive change, as well as a vehicle to exchange and cascade ideas and information, and to meet and connect with other members of the air cargo handling sector.

Highlights of the conference are expected to include the session on handling pharmaceuticals and healthcare products, an increasingly important part of the air freight business. With this in mind, this session has also been aligned with the previous day’s conference on this topic held by the Cool Chain Association at the Tivoli Lisboa Hotel.

The other ACH conference and workshop topics have all also been proposed and selected by senior cargo handling experts, who have judged them to be of key relevance and importance to the sector in the current market. They include sessions on promising emerging markets; meeting the developing needs of customers; an update on various industry initiatives and regulations; progress towards standardisation or ‘Starbuckification’ within air cargo handling; and strategies to meet the dynamics of the current market conditions.

Workshop format

Like the last few years, Day 2 will be mainly dedicated to working groups, although this year the format has changed slightly, with the working groups arranged to take place consecutively rather than simultaneously, in order to allow delegates to participate in all of the sessions and increase the level and range of participation and debate.

These will focus, respectively, on the priorities of airlines, shippers & forwarders, cargo handlers, and airports, and will be followed by a working group summary and conclusions session and the review by COAG committee members of delegates’ views and conclusions.

This year’s ACH Conference, organised by EVA International Media, is being hosted by ANA Airportos de Portugal, which will also host a Gala Dinner event in the evening of 26th September.

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