OceanX AGM #swiss2022
Events Past events Press release

OceanX AGM #swiss2022

During June 29th to July 2nd 2022 OceanX held the network’s Annual General Meeting again. After Dubai, Chengdu, Porto and Tangiers, this years’ conference venue was the Mövenpick hotel in Basel, Switzerland. Over 80 delegates, members, guests and industry experts found their way into the Swiss city by the Rhine river to discuss the latest trends in seafreight, current market environment, innovations and their bilateral cooperation. 

Those arriving early in Switzerland had the pleasure of PreParty on the Roof Terrace of the OceanX Office in Laufenburg, a beautiful medieval town by the river, celebrating reunion with friends and partners after two years on June 28th. The event featured the famous DJ Alex that flew in from Barcelona for this special occasion. 

The formal event started then on Wednesday 29th with registration at the conference venue and delegates receiving their delegate packs, featuring our meanwhile signature bags in the #swiss2022 design and containing everything needed for a successful conference. In the evening we all came together for the opening reception on the terrace of the hotel for a beautiful, sunny evening. 

Following the traditional 6.30 5K run in the morning of Thursday 30th, with a record turnout of runners, the conference part of the event was kicked off with a keynote by the network’s founder and director Ruben Huber. He welcomed the delegates, outlined the achievements of the network over the part year, provided an update on key market and industry topics, before running through the plans for the coming year. Next up, Stijn Rubens of Drewry, provided an overview and analysis of the container shipping market and the latest insights from consultancy’s Container Forecaster. Christian Soerensen from Winmore provided a deep dive into tender management, the challenges of ever shorter tender cycles in time of staff shortages and what role technology can play today already as well as going forward. He was followed by Vivien Cheong from Asian last mile innovator Yojee, sharing her thoughts on technological innovation in our industry. And just before the first break, Julien Chappus of Okargo provided the latest update on carrier connectivity for rates, which have seen some progress but in many cases still lack coverage, do not guarantee slots and in most cases do not consider equipment availability at all, thus highlighting one persisting key industry pain point. Next up, in a segment on innovation around the box, Naik Londono and Johnson Tan of Swiss Innovator AELER presented their approach to reinventing the box and in particular their view of the future business model that features container as a service (CAAS). Pay Holst of ContainerXChange followed with a look on their marketplace concept to make sharing of equipment and efficiency gains for buyers and sellers, providers and users of boxes simpler.

OceanX 2021 Innovation Award Winner Navia had their commercial head Jamal Kanj outline the transformation journey of their group, the focus on culture change and the need to be „future proof“. He showed the delegates how their customer centric digital approach with the Navia Hub has developed and how customer engagement is changing.

Con-Linq’s Flemming Pedersen provided an overview on Process Automation and Optimisation, starting with tariff building and quotation solutions. And the morning concluded with Klaus Gerhard Klein of Cubidat, providing a demo of the 3D scanning solution from member CargoSpectre.

The afternoon was dedicated to bilateral One2One meetings, where Chinese Members were included virtually. And for the evening the delegates went out on the Rhine river for a Cocktail cruise with Swiss Specialties passing the ports of Huningue (France), Weil am Rhein (Germany) and Basel (Switzerland), co-sponsored by the Swiss Member Sieber Transport. The upcoming Thunderstorm was overshadowed by party music and pleasant conversations, the lightning show formed a special kind of fireworks and most delegates made it to the next bars and restaurants half-way dry.

Friday morning, July 1st, saw another 0630 morning running group, along the river, this time in less friendly weather but not less motivated. And the morning was again dedicated to more One2One interactions with networking breaks. During the afternoon, four of our newest members, were presenting their companies. Starting with Fabio Cotrim of PGL in Brazil outlining their market position and sales driven organisation, followed by Ian Treder of OMA Group providing some background on West Africa and their capabilities in a challenging environment. Anselmo Veiga of Mind4Logistics, presented their particular people culture and trust based business approach, making them a leader in their field in Portugal. And Jay Prakash of GGL USA showed the impressive scope and capabilities of their group on handling key accounts.

Friday evening, the delegates found together at Acqua restaurant for a beautiful Prosecco reception in the sunny garden, followed by delicious gala dinner with exciting conversations. Afterwards the event ended in the various bars and pubs of this great host city.

Saturday concluded the conference, with a 10K and 3 country run along the river for the sportier ones and strolling city tour through the history of Basel. Those departing on Sunday, took the train ride to sunny Laufenburg, for a concluding AfterParty in the office, including a visit to the beach and eating Italian ice cream across the bridge in Germany. 

Thank you for an amazing time!   

   

  

About OceanX

OceanX is a non – exclusive global network of leading ocean freight providers and NVOCCs dedicated to delivering bespoke innovative solutions, in particular on FCL services, LCL consolidation, dangerous goods and chemical logistics, temperature control, as well as project cargo handling.

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