MacAndrews participated at a recent event in Porto. The event was attended by Mark Copsey, CCO of MacAndrews – OPDR and Fernando Delgado, General Manager of MacAndrews, Lda Portugal.
Eighteen moderators and guest speakers; along with 200 participants met in Porto on Thursday 16th March 2017 for a Seminar on Maritime Transport organised by Transportes & Negócios. 
The objective of the event was to bring together leaders, businesses, professionals from the maritime and port sectors, national and foreign, to reflect and debate the present and the future of the shipping and transport sector with a very aptly named theme, “Expanding Our Horizons”.
The discussions were set up into three panels, Shortsea Shipping & Co-modality, Changing Times in Shipping & Ports and Strategies For Increasing Port Competitiveness. The participants in the three panels represent many of the main national and international stakeholders within the maritime transport industry.
The event started at 09:00am with a networking coffee session, a welcome note delivered by Mr Fernando Gonçalves followed by the start of the first panel discussion on shortsea shipping.
MacAndrews-OPDR Chief Commercial Officer – Mark Copsey took part in the first session discussing Shortsea Shipping & Co- Modality amongst other speakers including; Sérgio Costa, General Manager at CLdN Roro Portugal , Javier Orcero, Sales Manager at Grimaldi Logistica, Egídio Lopes, Managing Director at Klog and Adriana Diaz. PKQ Manager at 2E3S. This panel was moderated by Isabel Moura Ramos from Shortsea Association Portugal.
Topics covered by the Shortsea Shipping & Co- Modality panel included preparing for the unknown of BREXIT, as Portugal remains one of UK’s trading partners and how this will affect operations in the multimodal world amongst other perceived challenges in the industry to name a few.
Attendees were delighted with a lunch break at the Le Poivron Rouge Restaurant at the end of an interesting discussion from the first panel. Soon after lunch, the other panel discussions commenced, with the roundtable discussions on Shipping and Ports – Times of Change followed by the third roundtable: Strategy to Increase Port Competitiveness.
The participants of the three panels represented many of the main national and international stakeholders in the industry . This naturally attracted attendance of the secretaries-general of ECSA, ESPO, FEPORT and FONASBA.
A coffee break and closing speech by Mr Fernando Gonçalves marked a charming close to an interesting day.
We were privileged to participate in such an engaging event . It truly reflected the vibrancy and spirit of European trade and we look forward to centuries of successful partnership with Portugal and the UK.
