The latest event hosted by the Air Cargo Community Frankfurt – themed “COM.together! “ – took place at the InterCity Hotel Frankfurt Airport on November, 26th. It attracted more than 80 representatives of companies and institutions that already are or that are interested in becoming members of the community. Following the community’s principle “Join the community – Shape the future – Share the success”, they actively engaged in lively discussions in order to lay the foundation for a successful year 2016.

Dr. Karl-Rudolf Rupprecht, executive board member Operations at Lufthansa Cargo AG and chairman of the Air Cargo Community Frankfurt, opened the event with a welcoming speech. Joachim von Winning, executive director of the community, took over with a presentation in which he reviewed the community’s development within the last year: by now, the Air Cargo Community unifies 35 companies from all sectors of the cargo process chain and is constantly increasing its significance for air cargo at Frankfurt Airport. Consequently, he presented the main topics for the future: site benchmarks, the certification of the pharmaceutical process chain, faster import processes for perishables, promotion of digitalization and the big topic of human capital.

Following this introduction, the community had invited Volker Stockrahm (Ernst & Young) as a guest lecturer. Titled “The future has already begun – how successful companies benefit from cooperation”, his keynote speech showed the analogy of the air cargo process chain to supply chain management and highlighted the huge potential of optimized communication. Communication does not only lead to an increase in speed, but also to a decrease in costs.

Afterwards, the participants of the event had the chance to get active themselves and bring in their thoughts. Eight discussion groups were formed focusing on different topics. The ideas and the results of these groups will be an important input for the work of the community in 2016.

Once again, the event showed that the community presents an ideal platform for the companies of the air cargo process chain at Frankfurt to push joint projects – all with the objective of increasing the competitiveness of the site for the benefit of all.