AAPA 105TH ANNUAL CONVENTION GOES TO NEW ORLEANS

The Port of New Orleans hosted the 105th Annual Convention and Expo of the American Association of Port Authorities (AAPA) from October 23 to 25.

The four-day program featured members of Congress discussing anticipated trade and transportation policy for the upcoming year; noted political commentator and executive editor for The Weekly Standard Fred Barnes focusing on the 2016 U.S. elections; an industry outlook on global and domestic supply chains and gov-ernments’ evolving role in optimizing goods movement; perspectives on port financing in-vestment and development initiatives; anticipated impacts of energy markets on ports; and presentations addressing effective communications strategies technologies to enhance port productivity and best practices in environmental stewardship.

On the final day of the program which will also feature AAPA’s annual awards luncheon the ports association and Beaumont Texas’ La-mar University will hold a signing ceremony to-authorize a program agreement between the two organizations. It will enable current port professionals who have earned AAPA’s Professional Port Manager (PPM®) certification to jump start attainment of Lamar University’s fully online graduate degree programs in port management. In June AAPA and Lamar University signed a Memorandum of Under-standing to provide mutually-beneficial educational and professional development opportunities for the benefit of students and port professionals.