Over 500 delegates, 41 represented countries, 325 presentations, over 40 exhibitors and some 5 years in the making – this was to be the most successful PIANC congress ever.
At the heart of the 125th Anniversary Congress of PIANC – the World Association for Waterborne Transport Infrastructure - was the Mills Media live events team. With over fifty staff working at Liverpool’s BT Convention Centre during the five day Congress, Mills Media provided a host of services for the organisation’s prestigious gathering.
Working closely with the PIANC-UK organising committee since 2005, we provided comprehensive event management services including website design, delegate registration, sponsorship and exhibition sales. The venue’s exhibition hall welcomed over 40 companies and Mills Media also produced exhibition and delegate handbooks, abstracts and delegate gift packs.
The grand opening ceremony held in the Convention Centre’s auditorium featured speeches from some of PIANC’s major players plus a welcome address Liverpool Lord Mayor, Cllr Mike Storey. Delegates also enjoyed rousing renditions from the King’s Division Band and the entire event was produced and filmed by our in-house creative team.
AV production was installed by the Mills Media technical team to deliver four parallel sessions in four conference rooms. Each included full stage, set and audio/video feeds to aid the presentation of papers covering a wide range of topics relating to ports, inland waterways and maritime issues.
Selected for its historic maritime setting, PIANC 2010 also enabled Liverpool to provide unique entertainment for the attending delegates and their partners. Mills Media provided a wealth of diverse culture featuring art at Tate Liverpool, Beatles tribute bands, dancing at St George’s Hall and the stunning organ sounds of the city’s Anglican Cathedral, where the Congress closing banquet was held. The catering was supplied by Pickled Walnut.
Some 1,700 stills were taken during the event by our photographers and 2000 minutes of audio was recorded. The Mills Media business television crew also filmed across the five days and captured the success of the PIANC 2010 event as it unfolded.
Mike Thorn, Chairman of the PIANC MMX organising committee, said that the event was a major success.
“We chose Liverpool to host the event as the facilities and maritime history really appealed to PIANC,” he said. “The support and event management of Mills Media gave us a memorable congress with nothing but praise from our international delegates. They loved the facilities in the city and commented that the event production was of the highest standards.”
The congress main sponsor was Trelleborg Marine Systems. Managing director Richard Hepworth said that he was proud to sponsor the conference: “It was one of the most professionally organised conferences of this type that I have been to and from a sponsor’s point of view we gained a lot of brand building and exposure.”
Held every four years, PIANC 2014 will be staged in San Francisco. For now, both PIANC and Mills Media are celebrating a momentous Congress that has been hailed the best yet in the organisation’s 125th year history.
View the full collection of PIANC MMX photographs on Flickr.
