For the first time since the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, the annual Northeast Trade & Transportation Conference – scheduled to be held in Newport this week – will shift its focus from security issues to shipping in an economic downturn.
“Keynote speaker [Tay Yoshitani] is speaking about how ports are managing in a difficult economy,” Coalition of New England Companies for Trade (CONECT) Executive Director Carol Turner said last week. “Ports are so critical to the industry and he’s coming from the Port of Seattle. I think he has a different approach than some other ports, where a lot of people are getting laid off.”
Yoshitani’s port recently put about 800 employees on two-week furloughs to stem layoffs, Turner added.
“The economy will play a big part in this conference [scheduled for March 18 to 20] because it’s going to change things for everyone involved” in shipping, she said, adding, “Security has always been in the forefront since 9/11. It’s always been largely security-driven, though this year I don’t see” too many speakers talking about security.
Other speakers scheduled for the conference include Mortimer Downy III, who led President Barack Obama’s transition team on transportation and previously had been the executive director of the New York Metropolitan Transportation Authority, the country’s largest transit agency. He will discuss what he sees as an urgent need for transportation policy.
Other speakers will focus on sustainability and the way ports interact with the environment, Turner said, “because there’s lots of legislation out there that has to do with cleaner trucks and cleaner ports.”
There will also be closed-door sessions for members to discuss issues with lawyers and each other, Turner said.
This year’s conference is also set to highlight issues involved with exporting. That will be the topic at the first panel, to be held on March 18.
“That’s something new for us,” Turner said. “We’ve been more of an import group, but we are beginning to get more into exports.”
The more than 600 CONECT members work at about 250 transportation and port-related companies in New England and as far south as Virginia. “If their needs are aligned, it doesn’t really matter where you’re based,” Turner said.
About 22 percent of the member companies are based in Rhode Island, including Hasbro Inc., Taco Inc., GTECH Corp. and Pawtucket’s Liberty International Inc.
Turner said about 300 people signed up for this year’s conference, about the same as last year. That’s not because it’s a recession-proof industry, but rather because the content is still important, she said.
“It think it’s the education that people need,” Turner said. “You can’t stop keeping up with the legislation and the changing rules of your industry. You have to keep up with that, so it’s kind of must-have information.”
CONECT Board Member Luiz da Costa said in a press release that the conference is important enough that “our members tell us that it is one of the first items they put in each year’s budget and training schedule.”
She added that the conference offers an opportunity for businesses and officials to network.
And the opportunity to network is in part the reason that the conference has been held in Newport for 11 of the 13 years, Turner said. It has also been held in Providence and Mystic, Conn. In Newport, “you feel like you’re going away – it’s kind of a resort feel,” Turner said. •
The Coalition of New England Companies for Trade is the region’s largest nonprofit member-based international trade organization. Additional information about CONECT and its 13th annual organizer of the annual Northeast Trade & Transportation Conference – a three-day gathering that begins March 18 at the Hotel Viking in Newport – is available at www.conect.org.
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