TPM Conference Once Again Sees Record Attendance

JOC Staff |

LONG BEACH, Calif. — With 2,000 attendees, representing 21 countries, The Journal of Commerce once again broke records with its 13th annual Trans-Pacific Maritime Conference in Long Beach, Calif.

Among discussions of the federal budget sequester, mega-ships, freight rates, and what's ahead for 2013, some significant statements emerged. Maersk Line's Soren Skou, said in his keynote address that he was optimistic that: "container ship lines can improve on last year's results if they continue to trim costs and control capacity." Supply chains may also soon be feeling the federal budget sequestration's impact on Customs and Border Protection, warned a trade attorney. "It's too early to know how quickly the containers will back up," said Los Angeles based attorney Susan Kohn-Ross, "but they will."

A total of twenty-three panel sessions and over 50 speakers addressed also addressed east and west coast labor issues, chassis, match-back planning as a solution to equipment shortages and more.

"We were delighted with the turnout, quality of presentations and vibrant networking environment at the event this year. It is gratifying to see so many derive so much value from the ability to spend a few days together in Long Beach each year in early March," said Peter Tirschwell, senior vice president of strategy, UBM Global Trade. "We received a lot of valuable feedback on site this year that will help us to further improve TPM in 2014." TPM also saw a significant increase in shipper attendees this year, including retailers, manufacturers and other importers/exporters.

Held at the start of each year's service contracting cycle for the trans-Pacific trade, TPM brings together senior executives from across the logistics and shipping industries for discussions of top challenges facing the industry. The event program is created, and led, by members of the Journal of Commerce editorial team including Bill Mongelluzzo, Peter T. Leach and Joseph Bonney. TPM is now the largest event of its kind in the world.

Attendees can pre-register for the 2014 conference. Visit:https://www.xpressreg.net/register/tpmc034/inquiry/start.asp

For more information, follow TPM on Twitter @TPMconferences and, for more information and coverage about this year's event, please visit: www.joc.com.

We hope you will join us for our other upcoming JOC Events in 2013. In September, our Inland Distribution Conference makes its debut in Kansas City, MO on September 18-19th. Inland Distribution is the process of strategically transporting and positioning imported goods at inland locations for effective onward distribution to retail locations and direct to consumers. Once imported goods hit North American seaports a myriad of choices confronts the retailer or consumer goods company based on the unique requirements of their own supply chain and business model. The JOC Inland Distribution Conference will take an in-depth look at critical questions, drawing out insights and perspectives from some of the leading thinkers and practitioners in the inland distribution arena. The conference program will be organized by the editorial team at the JOC, along with input from industry stakeholders. For more information about this event, visit:http://www.joc.com/event/joc-inland-distribution-conference

We also encourage you to attend our TPM Asia conference, held in Shenzhen, China in October. This year the event will be taking place from October 16-17th. Now in its seventh year, the event attracts over 600 attendees – including importers/exporters, carriers, 3PLs, ports and terminals. For more information, visit: http://www.joc.com/event/tpm-asia-conference