During four days the attending members in Vienna last week gathered and could enjoy meeting each other face-to-face for the first time after two years, discussing business and opportunities and having social events in the sunny and stunning beauty of the city of Vienna. The conference opened with a splendid waltz performance by young dancers in typical Vienna ballroom fashion.

From the time of the first membership conference in Brussels in 2001 five companies received a Certificate of Membership memorizing them as the founding members.

Steder Group, Netherlands (former Husson Huijsman)

Kaleido Logistics, Spain (former Vasco Gallega de Consignaciones)

Gulf Maritime General Trading & Contracting, (former United Shipping Trading & Contracting Services) Kuwait

LS Cargo (former LS International Cargo) Germany

Procargo – Professional Cargo Care, Finland.

From those companies Wolfgang Karau, Procargo and Rob de Korte, Steder Group, attended the first membership conference in Brussels.

The conference agenda gave amble time to learn about the state of global shipping from sponsors Wallenius Wilhelmsen and guest speaker, Professor Dr. Kummer, the Head of the Institute of Transport and Logistics at the University of Trade, Vienna.

WWPC local Austrian hosts, Gerhard and Barbara Wagner of Bolk Transport made sure the group had a great time. Member-to-Member sessions, Dinners and excursions allowed time to interact with fellow members and sponsors.

The Port of Koper, also sponsoring this event, explained about their operations and services for heavy and outsized cargo shipments and gave a general overlook about their company and future developments in the port.

Invited media supporters to the WWPC, Heavy Lift Magazine and Osterreichische Verkehrszeitung covered the conference.

The WWPC auction supported the CliniClowns Austria Association, which was awarded with Euro 20.000,- as a result of selling sponsored items from Bolk Transport, Wallenius Wilhelmsen, Port of Koper, BBC Chartering, Heavy Lift Magazine and the conference venue Le Meridien Hotel.

In addition the attending members generously contributed with money donations to round up the end result.

A new Board of Advisors was elected for the period until the next membership conference and consists of:

Elmer Sarmiento, Royal Cargo, Philippines,

Ahmed Dahshan, KML, Egypt,

Marcel Hafemann, Ambercor Shipping, USA

Ole Dammann, LS Cargo, Germany.

As location and date for the next WWPC membership conference the members voted for Toronto, Canada in September 2023 and Ambercor Shipping, Canada accepted to be the local host.