Saint John Port Days Connects Clients, Stakeholder and Community
SAINT JOHN – All hands are on deck at Port Saint John as their annual Port Days are underway.
Port Days is a major client and stakeholder event held by every year by Port Saint John. The goal of the evening is to celebrate the port’s success with the community, while laying the foundation for future growth.
“Every year it’s an opportunity for people who work in our industry to really connect with business in our community for networking with the port or engaging about business issues,” said Paula Copeland, Manager of Corporate Communications & Governance for Port Saint John.
Port Days kicked-off on Sunday with Port Saint John’s 6th Annual Community Day, which is not only a free family event for the entire city, but a place for port stakeholders to display and share the work they do with the community.
“Community day is one of our critical pieces for our outreach with our community and helping people connect with the waterfront and with the people who are working every day in the waterfront and what they do,” Copeland said.
Starting Monday and continuing through Tuesday, there will be several business sessions for port clients and stakeholders. The sessions will cover the shipping and cargo side of the port’s business, with topics including the economic & social value of ports and rail opportunities. For the first time this year, there will also be sessions on cruise tourism, which is perhaps the most visible work the community sees the port do.
“The cruise one is the new addition and pretty excited about that because we wanted to do something to help people start to think about some of the big projects that are coming and some of the exciting things that are happening, but also to think about how we can make this destination even better for future visitors,” Copeland said.
The cruise sessions will cover the industry at all levels, with national speakers such as Tourism Industry Association of Canada President & CEO Charlotte Bell, to local speakers like Beth Kelly Hatt of Saint John’s Aquila Tours. Sessions will include global and local trends in cruise tourism and achieving growth.
Copeland said that Port Saint John has been hosting Port Days since at least the early 1960’s and have been a crucial part of how the port operates ever since.
“[They are] really critical and important for connecting with our client base, but also our business and working to making the economic impact of a port to a community more understood and also grow,” Copeland said.