More than seven hundred participants registered for the congress, taking part in 60 lectures, 4 technical visits, and 6 thematic workshops. The ninth Logistics congress was held under the slogan “New challenges – new solutions.” The main themes of the congress were new markets, security issues, and economic and political conditions currently influencing the development of logistics.
– The world today presents us all, and therefore also logisticians, with new challenges. Not only of an economic or financial nature. In the face of these challenges, we seek solutions in our work, but also at the level of EU projects, at universities, and in various research and development centers – said Stanisław Krzyżaniak, a member of the congress organizing committee. – The congress program council has prepared a program that will answer a number of questions and perhaps also inspire the asking of new ones.
A special highlight of this year’s congress was the tenth anniversary of ECR Poland, which created a platform for cooperation and linked manufacturing and retail companies in the fast-moving consumer goods sector in Poland through partnership ties. In addition to plenary sessions and the presentation of best practices during 6 thematic sessions, the Polish Logistics Congress was an opportunity to learn about the offerings of logistics companies, IT firms, warehouse technology suppliers, ports, and logistics centers, which were showcased at the “Logistics Market 2008” exhibition.
The first speaker at the Polish Logistics Congress Logistics 2008 was Hans-Christian Pfohl from the Technical University of Darmstadt (Germany). The professor spoke about how value is created through the implementation of innovative solutions in logistics. Grzegorz Szyszka, Director of the Institute of Logistics and Warehousing, presented a summary of the report “Logistics in Poland – Report 2007”, and Michel van der Heijden and George Simeon from GS1 spoke about open standards that enable fast and effective knowledge transfer between different entities. Francois Colombie and Stefan Golonka presented the ten-year achievements of ECR in Poland. The special guest who concluded the congress was Witold Orłowski, former economic advisor to President Kwaśniewski.