October 14 - All eyes are now focused on New Orleans where many of the world's heavy lift and project forwarding community is gathered for the 20th Annual Breakbulk Transportation Conference and Exhibition.

The conference and exhibition, held each year in New Orleans, is the leading event of its kind in North America and has certainly got off to a great start. Peter Edwards, Publishing Director of HLPFI says that the event seems to be bigger and better than ever and many key industry stakeholders appear to have decided to attend the event.

Adds Mr Edwards: "It's no secret the global recession of the past year has been one of the worst. However, momentum is beginning to build for a new cycle of breakbulk recovery, and this is something that the event will be investigating in some detail."

The conference features a key note address by John Mika, senior vice president procurement at Ch2M Hill, panel discussions that will focus on the forecast of positive economic indicators, as well as coverage of the following topics: industry forecasts; cleaning up bills of lading; impending changes in INCO terms; sourcing steel; a regional roundtable on Brazil; barging breakbulk cargo; risk management in a buyer's market.