This year’s conference made history as being the most attended WESCCON to date with about 400 attendees – and Avalon was proud to be a part of it as a Diamond Sponsor! WESCCON was full of informational panels that included speakers from multiple government agencies, ports, attorneys, and sureties.
The conference started off strong on Friday morning with the presentation of the WESCCON scholarship winners from each of the Pacific Coast Council associations. The breakfast session continued with keynote speaker, Bukeni Warzui, from Free the Slaves non-for-profit organization. Mr. Warzui highlighted the difficulties facing the supply chain in eradicating force labor.
The day continued with panels that covered topics such as 21 CCF, the new 111 regulations, FPF Operations, CBP Roundtable discussions and more. Avalon’s President, Mike Brown, spoke on the Cyber panel that emphasized the need to stay vigilant for cyber attacks. Technology nowadays is advanced enough that a hacker doesn’t need any programming knowledge to create a massive cyber attack. He went on to discuss the importance of having a cyber business continuity plan. Companies need to be prepared for when an attack happens and know what to do, how to communicate with employees, clients, government agencies, etc.
Peter Friedmann kicked off Saturday’s breakfast as the keynote speaker. He discussed various topics including China section 301 tariffs and how the Biden administration hasn’t done anything to remove them. Friedmann advised that global trade patterns are shifting from efficiency to other priorities such as like climate change and labor standards. The potential railroad strike was also discussed as twelve (12) unions representing rail workers must approve the terms of the labor agreement. At this time, four rail unions have approved it.
WESCCON’s theme of Ever Changing V.2022 Riding the Waves into the 21st Century continued with panels on challenges the industry faces post COVID with hiring, retaining and engaging employees. Additional panels included updates from FDA and CPSC, and export updates. The Surety Panel had a lively discussion covering surety and insurance related issues. Mike Brown talked about trends the industry is seeing with shipper’s contracts, an increase in E&O claims, and the importance of forecasting to avoid a bond insufficiency. These presentations and handouts can be found at https://www.pacificcoastcouncil.org/presentations.
Thank you to everyone who attended our Under the Sea event. Watch a conference recap video here. Finally, we would like to congratulate Lisa Bosques with Frontier North America as our winner from our blog subscriber contest!
Overall, this year’s WESCCON was a success and we’re already looking forward to next year’s conference at Rancho Mirage, CA.
