While the early 1990s saw IAPH take the lead on maritime sustainability, in the latter half of the decade the association turned its attention to topics of global interest: the transformative effects of the dot-com boom and the unquantifiable risks of the Y2K problem. In 1997, IAPH returned to London, England for the first time since 1965, where the Port of London Authority again hosted the event. The opening ceremony took place at Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre on June 1 (weeks ahead of the venue’s official opening); proceedings from the conference notably included a demonstration of the new home page of the first official IAPH website, as well as the introduction of the IAPH 2000 Special Task Force. The mission of this group was to ‘allow IAPH to better respond to the needs of its members at the turn of the new millennium’. Conclusions were presented at the 1999 Conference, held in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. “The Information Age is upon us and we have already seen and experienced numerous changes in the way we do things,” Malaysian prime minister Dr Mahathir observed in his keynote speech at the event, hosted by Port Klang Authority. “Our economic well-being depends on our ability to adjust to and apply the new technologies.” A resolution was passed pertaining to ‘the vulnerability of the maritime transport industry to the consequences of potential Electronic Date Recognition (EDR) failures prior to, on or after 1 January, 2000’ and it was agreed to encourage implementation of the IMO’s Y2K Code of Good Practice among members. The new IAPH website provided links to relevant Y2K sites and a webpage for ports to report any noticeable bugs as the millennium began. Thankfully, a series of identical responses was recorded by member ports as 1 Jan 2000 arrived around the world. From Auckland to Bintulu, the message was the same: no problem.
The opening ceremony of the 1997 IAPH conference at Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre in London
