Smart Ports: Piers of Future

For the first time, the ports of Antwerp, Barcelona, Hamburg, Los Angeles, Montreal and Rotterdam come together to showcase their most advanced digital transformation and sustainability projects at their dedicated ‘Smart Ports’ exhibit

The 'Smart Ports. Piers of the Future' event brought together six of the world's largest ports and has turned Barcelona into the world capital of port innovation.

At the Smart City Expo World Congress, held from 19 to 21 November at the Fira de Barcelona events center on Gran Via, the ports of Antwerp, Barcelona, Hamburg, Los Angeles, Montreal and Rotterdam joined forces for the first time to set up their dedicated smart ports exhibit booth in which each port showcased the most advanced projects they are currently working on.

This first ever 'Smart Ports' event, that was extremely well attended, was an opportunity for participating ports to share their strategic plans to address present and future sustainable development and digital transformation challenges. This is what the representatives of each port had to say about the success of the event:

Piet Opstaele, Innovation Lead, Manager Innovation, Port of Antwerp: “The whole industry is facing challenges. Collaboration, like this worldwide network, is the key. Continuous investments and innovations are necessary to keep the edge. Therefore, the focus of Port of Antwerp for the future is on digital and energy transition. We ‘walk the talk’ by sustainably investing in the development of hard, digital infrastructure and processes in view of building the port of the future."

"As community builder we aim to be pioneer smoothening the path for innovation while investing in those areas in which the market has not developed yet. In these turbulent times it is our mission to act as a lever for stakeholders that spot innovative opportunities. Therefore, we strive to be an open innovative platform that allows new technologies to be introduced. Innovation with a purpose,” Opstaele added.

“The ‘Smart Ports’ conference made it clear that the digital transformation is leading to a data rich environment that can benefit every link in the maritime supply chain,” said Port of Los Angeles Executive Director Gene Seroka. “In collaboration with other forward-thinking ports, we envision leading the way in securely using big data to improve the reliability, predictability and efficiency of seaborne trade. We thank and congratulate Port of Barcelona President Mercè Conesa i Pagès, Deputy General Manager Santiago Mila and the entire conference team for hosting such a well-organized and insightful event.”

“It is important to come together as an industry to demonstrate how ports are contributing positively to maintain a sustainable balance with their respective surrounding cities by leveraging digital solutions”, said Daniel Olivier, Director, Business Intelligence and Innovation at the Port of Montreal. “That's why the Port of Montreal is acting as a North American leader in smart solutions in harbor trucking among other initiatives.”