CEDA Dredging Days finds tools for the future

Many technological innovations have been introduced since 2003, when CEDA Dredging Days was dedicated to dredging tools and technology. Today the industry faces new challenges and new opportunities. Rising energy costs, climate change, increasing demands for dredging services in new regions, the emergence of new markets, plant shortages and the need for sustainable dredging solutions are just a few examples from a long list of challenges that are shaping the industry, now and in the near future. CEDA Dredging Days 2009 will demonstrate how the dredging industry responds to these new trends. Scientists and practitioners representing equipment manufacturers, consultancies, dredging companies and academia, will present papers outlining their achievements and, in particular, their visions for the future. In keeping with the international nature of the event, English will be the official language of the conference.

Highlights include 22 high quality peer reviewed technical presentations documenting the most recent technical advances, with a keynote address by Mr Peter Hinchcliffe, marine director at the International Chamber of Shipping in the UK.

The CEO Forum features international experts as panellists, including Govert Hamers, chairman of dredger builders IHC Merwede; Peter Lundhus, managing director of Denmark’s Fehmern Baelt A/S; Koos van Oord, chairman of the International Association of Dredging Companies; Dimitrios Theologitis, head of the Maritime Transport & Ports Policy unit for the European Commission; with Professor Cees van Rhee of Delft University of Technology serving as moderator.

CEDA Dredging Days always includes a technical visit, which this year will be to one of the IHC Merwede shipyards on the afternoon of Wednesday 4 November.

To complement the conference, a technical exhibition will be located in the area adjacent to the technical session room. The central location of the exhibition area will provide organizations with an excellent opportunity to present their products and services to a select and focused group of international experts and decision makers.

Following the Annual General Meeting of CEDA on 5 November the CEDA Netherlands Reception will take place for CEDA members, delegates, exhibitors and partners in the foyer of the Technical Session Room where the Dredging Exhibition is located. (Europort 2009 will be open until 22.00 on this evening).

Registration fees for CEDA/EADA/WEDA members is €450.00 and for non-members, €595.00. Speakers and PhD students pay only 300.00, with students charged €50.00. The technical visit costs €50.00 and the excellent accompanying partners’ programme, which includes a visit to the historic city of Delft, is priced at €75.00.

Registration can be completed online at www.cedaconferences.org/dredgingdays2009 or by sending in the completed registration form available from that website to the address given on the form.

Delegates are responsible for their own hotel bookings. Blocks of rooms have been reserved for delegates and guests by Hotel Service Rotterdam. Each hotel is in the city centre close to a Metro station with connection to Ahoy Rotterdam. Details are available on the conference’s website.

For further information contact the Conference Secretariat, Sylvia Minten of Minten Projectmanagement, at Tel: +31 6 1660 3947, Email: sylvia@mintenprojectmanagement.nl