On February 11th and 12th, Duisburg showed what happens when European innovative strength meets port expertise and a bit of Rhenish exuberance.
The Inland Ports Innovation Days - hosted by MultiRELOAD were the grand finale of a project that has proven: Great. Great value.
The results of the EU project MultiRELOAD were presented over two days. All with one goal: to make multimodal transport more efficient, sustainable and resilient.
But that's not enough:
The MultiRELOAD ports - Swiss Rhine ports - Port of Switzerland, Hafen Wien GmbH and duisport - Duisburger Hafen AG - discussed the future of our ports with project partners and experts from industry and in keynotes, pitches and panels on policy and strategy, multimodality as well as digitalization and automation.
A look outside the box couldn't be missed:
At the DST - Development Center for Ship Technology and Transport Systems and in the Duisburg port area there were insights into current innovation projects - including NOVA, ELLA, the Duisburg Gateway Terminal and systems in the enerPort II project.
And then there was the old woman thing!
True to the motto “Innovation can be fun,” red clown noses suddenly appeared in the group photo and became the unofficial symbol of the event.
The findings of the two days?
- Innovations must go from pilot to market.
- Ports are innovation ecosystems powered by people.
- Cross-border cooperation is the key to increasing the visibility and performance of inland ports.
Jan-Christoph Maass, Senior Project Manager Research and Innovation at duisport and MultiRELOAD project coordinator, concludes:
"For MultiRELOAD it was the closing event – for the European Inland Ports Community it was the starting signal for new ideas, links and cooperation. MultiRELOAD was the first EU-funded project focusing purely on inland ports to show that innovation is driving the modal shift, increasing the efficiency of multimodal hubs and enabling connected, data-based logistics solutions in Europe."
A big thank you to all partners, speakers, and guests. Special thanks to the DST for the location, organization and carnival features as well as Lisa-Maria Putz-Egger for the moderation.
Photos: Copyright DST
