California Dreaming -23rd IGHC Annual Meeting & 3rd IATA Ground Operations May 2010
by Justin Jaques Worldwide Flight Services Hong Kong
Last week, the Sheraton San Diego Hotel & Marina was the venue for the 23rd IGHC Annual Meeting & 3rd IATA Ground Operations Symposium 2010 to which a broad range of airline, ground handling and equipment suppliers’ representatives jetted in from all parts of the world.
The event kicked off with a fun-packed golfing day organized by Ground Handling International at a nearby golf course home to rattle-snakes, rabbits and various unidentifiable possibly previously undiscovered animals.
The main event ran from Monday to Wednesday and consisted of Annual Meeting activities in the mornings and Ground Ops Symposium sessions in the afternoons with both sessions punctuated by coffee and meal breaks. As well as progress reports on various IGHC working groups including the revamp of the SGHA which is well underway and due for publication in 2013, updates were also provided on the initiatives being undertaken by IATA Cargo and Passenger working groups.
Some suppliers also had a chance to present their perspective on the future and ground handling companies hosted events and meetings with their clients. Other groups such as IAHA (International Aviation Handlers’ Association) took the opportunity to hold meetings with their members.
The coffee breaks soon took centre stage and the real purpose of everyone coming to San Diego became clearer – a great opportunity to network with key suppliers and clients in one place. Longer coffee breaks would have meant that delegates would have attended more of the presentations and updates and finding the right balance remains a challenge for future events.
San Diego as California’s 2nd largest city was a great place to spend a few days – its proximity to Mexico (15 miles) adds flavor to the local restaurants available and Naval Base San Diego, the largest on the Pacific Coast, dominates the bay. The Miramar Naval Air Station is nearby and a few fortunate delegates found themselves in the Kansas City bar where Pete “Maverick” Mitchell attempted to attract the attention of Charlotte “Charlie” Blackwood in Top Gun 24 years earlier.
In all, a good and useful event in a nice place and fortunately the sky wasn’t grey and the leaves weren’t brown!
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