IAPH president Jens Meier (CEO, Hamburg Port Authority) delivered the keynote address during the opening ceremony of the 14th Busan International Port Conference (BIPC), held earlier this week. The event – with the theme of Blueprints into Action: Driving Innovation for a Resilient Future – was hosted by IAPH member the Port of Busan, which celebrated its 150th anniversary. During his opening keynote on 15 September, Jens focused on the paradigm shift from pure efficiency to resilience, underlining that ports must learn how to operate in an uncertain world rather than simply waiting for the next crisis, and emphasised that redundancy was not a luxury but the foundation of resilience. That same day, Jens also took part in an expert session and panel discussion on ‘AI Beyond Digitalisation’. Using the example of Hamburg Port Authority’s robot dog Spot, Jens explained why the real value creation of AI depends on employee acceptance and outlined the objectives HPA has set for the use of AI in infrastructure inspections. Earlier that day IAPH vice-president for North America Gene Seroka (executive director, Port of Los Angeles) and recently elected IAPH vice-president for Europe Boudewijn Siemons (CEO of Port of Rotterdam) participated in a panel discussion titled ‘The next frontier in Port Decarbonisation’ alongside pannelists from IAPH members Port of Seattle, Barcelona Port Authority and HAROPA Port.
