Container Port of the Year winner to be announced at CSA gala next week
Published:Tuesday | October 25, 2022 | 12:07 AM
The winner of the Ludlow Stewart Container Port of the Year Award will be announced during the Caribbean Shipping Association’s (CSA) Annual General Meeting (AGM), Conference and Exhibition, scheduled for October 31 to November 2 in San Juan, Puerto Rico.
The prestigious award, which is presented to the competition’s best-performing port, will be presented during the CSA’s gala which closes the three-day event.
Over the past two years, the award programme was overhauled to remove benchmarks and absolute growth numbers, to allow entrants to be assessed on individual merits across 10 key categories, including productivity, environment, gender and digitalisation. The change meant each entry’s performance was compared to its similar period of the previous year, giving all ports an equal opportunity to win, regardless of size. Additionally, the Port Award Committee simplified the questionnaire, which made completion and submission easier.
The Freeport Container Port in The Bahamas copped the 2021 award, with the Port of Cuacedo in the Dominican Republic and the Barbados Port finishing second and third, respectively.
The CSA’s Port Awards Competition was created in 1987 to promote the development and increased efficiency of port operations.
The CSA’s AGM will be held at the Sheraton Hotel and Casino in San Juan, and includes numerous seminars, networking and social activities.
The Agenda
The first day will feature a keynote address by world-renowned trends expert Daniel Levine of the Avant Guide Institute. Levine, dubbed ‘the ultimate guru of cool’ by CNN, leads a global team of trendspotters and has corporate partners which include notable names such as General Motors, American Express and Microsoft.
Afterwards, the International Maritime Organization will be represented by its regional coordinator, Colin Young, who will present on the body’s project within the region.
Additionally, the opening day will see the election of the association’s president and vice-president, who will serve for the 2022-2023 term, as well as the presentation of a scholarship to a maritime student in honour of the late Monica Silvera, the CSA’s first female chief executive.
The day’s agenda will end with a networking cultural event hosted on the beach of the Hilton Caribe.
The following day will begin with a presentation by Najla King, managing director of CariMarine Industry Development and Consultancy Services, on ‘Unifying and Advancing Private Maritime Law and Practice: The Legal Framework of The Bill of Lading’. That session will be moderated by Simone Phillips, president of the Shipping Association of Barbados and CSA Group A representative.
Following that is a seminar led by Daniel Van der Vliet, executive director of the Smith Family Business Initiative at Cornell University, on ‘Leveraging Your Unique Strengths as a Family Business’, which will be moderated by Anibal Ocho, commercial director of Sociedad Portuaria Regional de Cartagena.
A panel discussion on ‘Low Carbon Pathways in Caribbean Shipping and Ports Services’ will follow, including contributions from Roberto Aiello, principal regional energy specialist of the Inter-American Development Bank; Gabriel Castellanos of the International Renewable Energy Agency; Eduardo Pagan, vice-president and general manager of Tote maritime and CSA Group A chairman; and Sita Narayanan, director of the Port of Guadeloupe. The forum will be moderated by Philip Gray, managing director of GrayShip BV.
Additionally, general delegate of the SEFACIL Foundation, Dr Yann Alix, will present on the topic of ‘Port Dynamics in the Caribbean Region and Latin America’, with Lars Jensen, CEO of Vespucci Maritime, sharing his insight on supply chain and logistics, and the outlook for the coming year. This session will be moderated by Juan Carlos Croston, vice-president of marketing and corporate affairs at Manzanillo International Terminal and CSA immediate past president.
The day’s sessions will conclude with a discussion on cruise terminal development by Nick Reimers, business development manager at Boskalis, which will be moderated by Robert Bosman, project development director at Boskalis Americas and CSA Group C representative.
A port tour and a second cultural event hosted by the main sponsor, the Puerto Rico Tourism Company, will wrap up the day’s activities.
The Power of Partnership and Influence
The final day will begin with a presentation on the planned Port of Vreed en Hoop Project in Guyana by Nicholas Deygoo, director of NRG Holdings Inc, and moderated by Desmond Sears, executive director of Delmur Company and CSA Group A representative.
A round-table discussion on ‘Enabling Cyber Resilience in the Maritime Supply Chain’ will follow, with panellists Rommel Edwards, manager of digital innovation and development at Barbados Port Inc; Scot Dickerson, executive director of MTS-ISAC; John Felker, president of Morse Alpha Associations; and Max Bobys, vice-president of HudsonCyber.
A panel on ‘The Power of Partnership and Influence When Men Mentor Women’ will follow, moderated by Stephen Bell, vice-president of Seaboard Marine Limited. The panellists will include Michel Amafo, director of Maritime Authority Suriname; Tamara Lowe, president of WiMAC; and Maria del Mar Rodriguez, trade manager at Tropical Shipping and CSA Group C chairman.
The final session will look at protecting the maritime environment with speaker Captain Rawle Baddaloo, past president of the CSA, and moderator J.C. Barona, regional sales manager of Cargotec, Bromma Americas and CSA Group D chairman.
The CSA’s AGM, Conference and Exhibition is the first to be held in-person since its staging in Kingston, Jamaica, in 2019.