More than 800 people walked through the doors across the three days at the Rai Amsterdam, taking this year's conference to another level.
Over 3,700 one-to-one meetings were scheduled and more than 25 sessions carried out in the conference hall and Cargo Zone.
Highlights included the Big Debate: Chaos at the airport - How does aviation fix the capacity crunch? Skills shortages, Automation, the Financial Outlook - Out of the frying pan and into the fire? Embracing the age of autonomous vehicles, Gender Equality: What is aviation doing about it? Where is Asia on the Covid recovery path? And the all-electric turnaround - a Latin American story?
With the return of the Cargo Zone, the conference added a variety of content and learning opportunities from handlers and start-ups able to showcase their innovations to an eager audience. There were outstanding speakers from the likes of Donna Mullins, from Kale Info Solutions, Rory Fidler from Menzies, Oana Jina from Dexory, (formerly botsandus) plus Mimi the robot and Dirk Goovaerts from Swissport and Laura Rodriguez from Cargo iQ at IATA.
Rodriguez, who is Manager Implementation and Quality Assurance, told GHI Magazine afterwards: "This was Cargo iQ's first time at the show and I was very grateful to be invited to be a speaker here. It was good to be at a show where we don't normally go and meet a lot of new faces and companies.
"The focus for us is engaging more with the ground handling community which has been invaluable because they are on the other side of the equation for us, so it has been worthwhile and a great week."
Nigel Daniel, Managing Director from Viking Airport Equipment and SPS GSE UK, who has attended the GHI Annual for many years in various guises as an airline, ground handling agent and now as an equipment provider, said: "This is what the show is meant to be following Covid. Over the last couple of days I have had at least 15 impromptu meetings, which is great and I will generate business from that."
The show was nicely rounded off with a superb delegate dinner, featuring the Pride of Ground Handling Awards ceremony and a saxophonist carving it up the dance floor with delegates.
And for those who stayed on after the conference and braved the cold outside, witnessed Vestergaard beat Textron GSE at the Delegate Football tournament.
Better luck next time Textron!
See you at the next GHI conference in Dubai in February.
