Like so many other in-person events this year, BDP's annual Supply Chain and Compliance Summit in Antwerp, Belgium was canceled to ensure the safety and well-being of BDP employees and our esteemed customers during the COVID-19 outbreak. Of course, this was disappointing on a number of levels: the general uncertainty of the virus and how it would play out, the inability to meet with customers in-person for thoughtful conversation and networking, and the missed chance to host a live forum for knowledge sharing where the top industry experts and executives provide updates and trends on some of the biggest external factors facing supply chains.
The BDP team quickly mobilized to formulate a plan for hosting the event in a virtual manner. Now more than ever, supply chains play a critical role in moving the world: logistics and transportation have been repeatedly recognized as an essential service despite many country-wide shutdowns over the past several months. Information is also paramount to keeping these supply chains moving, which emphasized the need for an event to share information, the latest developments, and other 'on the ground' news.
We were fortunate to have some of the top executives from the air, ocean, and regulatory realms of the industry host virtual sessions with BDP experts that provided an in-depth review on the state of the market, future outlook, and what steps companies can be taking now to mitigate some of the downstream effects from factors like COVID-19, punitive tariffs, and ongoing trade wars, to name a few.
Listen in below for excerpts from the Air Market session with Patrick Olyhoeck, Director, Airfreight-EMEA, BDP International and GertJan Roelands, Senior Vice President Cargo & Distribution, KLM; the Ocean Freight session with Neil Wheeldon, Vice President of Solutions, BDP International, and Thomas Sorbo, CBDO/Co-Founder, Xeneta, and Rolf Habben Jansen, CEO, Hapag Lloyd AG; and the Regulatory Trends session with Rich Bolte, Chairman & CEO, BDP International, Michael Ford, Vice President of Government and Industry Affairs, BDP International.
