6 work themes have been organised for this conference. They will be conducted by nearly 40 speakers coming from over 20 different countries !

The experiences of the following port cities will thus be presented, for a number of them for the very first time at an IACP Conference, for the record we can cite : the port cities of Mexico and their city – port spatial reorganisation strategies; the extraordinary project for the new King Abdullah Economic City in Saudi Arabia; Ningbo, the 4th biggest Chinese port and future member of the top ten club of world ports; Sydney, naturally, that we shall have the good fortune to discover in situ during on site visits; but also other big Australian ports whose projects will surprise you, Fremantle/Perth, Brisbane, Hobart, Darwin and also of course Melbourne for which an exceptional full day visit is proposed; Montevideo where IACP held a conference nearly 10 years ago and who are re-finding their impetus; Corunna and Valencia in Spain whose inventiveness needs no longer to be proved; the big Canadian port of Vancouver who will tell us about their container terminal right in the centre of the city; the dynamic Bilbao and the Basque port cities; Auckland who will come as a neighbour to expose their ambitious waterfront projects; Marseille, Le Havre and Paris who will each represent in their own manner active French city-port cooperation; the Ports of the Danube will talk about the specific problems of waterway ports; Shanghai, the world's top port, unavoidable today when talking of matters of city – port experiments; Richard's Bay and Durban will represent South Africa between modernity and traditions; Le Port of Reunion Island will give an update on their numerous development strategies; Avellaneda in the Province of Buenos Aires, will throw light to the debate on topics linked with industrial environments; for their part, Mauritius and Peru will give testimony on the practices of management of the security for flows between city and port; Rotterdam and Los Angeles will illustrate environmental issues, Bremen and Brussels, with their very innovating work, the issues of social cohesion.

Apart from the above, numerous specialists and personalities will take part in the work of this conference; logistics players like Gazely or port community systems with SOGET, academics, consultants as well as representatives of the World Bank, of the Inter-American Committee on Ports of the OAS, of the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean -ECLAC, or of Ente Publico Puertas del Estado (Spain) will present their points of view. These presentations and debates will conclude with the adoption of a Charter of Port Cities for Sustainable Development that will provide the occasion, under the chairmanship of Iñaki Azkuna, Mayor of Bilbao and IACP Chairman, for comments from authorities such as Mireille Backo, Secretary of the Association of Managements of West and Central African Ports (AGPAOC) or Augustin Diaz, Chairman of the Port of Curaçao and representing the South American Branch of the American Association of Port Authorities (AAPA)

At the end of these four days of exchanges and debates, without any doubt whatsoever, all the participants will have a clearer vision of the development strategies of the port cities of today and the opportunities to be grasped for their city, port or business. We shall be very happy to meet you all again in the magnificent city of Sydney for this exceptional event !
See you all soon in Australia !