Airport Cities World Conference Announces Speaker Line up and Programme for 2013

LONDON, February 21, 2013 /PRNewswire/ --

London-based event organiser UBM Live has announced the full programme and speaker line up for this year's Airport Cities World Conference and Exhibition (ACE) 2013 in the City of Ekurhuleni, South Africa.  

High profile figures from the Airport City community, including Professor John Kasarda, director of the centre for air commerce at the University of North Carolina, Sotiris Pagdadis, global head of airports at PWC and Chris Choa, principal at AECOM, will head a comprehensive line up of senior industry figures who will be travelling from all over the world to speak at the event.

This year's ACE will take place at the Emperors Palace Hotel in the City of Ekurhuleni, South Africa, from April 24-26, 2013, and will be the first time it has ever been hosted on African soil.

During the 2-day conference and exhibition, leading authorities on the airport city and aerotropolis concepts will be joined by a number of government officials, airport CEOs, and industry experts from all corners of the globe.

Speakers include influential and well-respected figures such as Jeff Fegan, CEO of Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport, Larry Cox, CEO of Memphis-Shelby County Airport Authority, Kim Day, manager of aviation at Denver International Airport, and Rajeev Kumar Jain, CEO of Mumbai International Airport, who will join many others to come to South Africa and discuss the latest developments, trends, success stories and best practices from within the airport city community.

Conference sessions will see these experts tackling and discussing topics such as the unique economic, geographical and cultural challenges in airport city and aerotropolis development; the relationships between stakeholders and regions; the newest airport city projects; masterplanning; investment and infrastructure development, commercial development and airport real estate; non- aeronautical revenue development and much more.

To take a look at the full list of speakers and sessions, please visit our website at http://www.airportcities.aero

About ACE

The Airport Cities World Conference and Exhibition champions the concept that today airports are more than just gateways for the transportation of goods and people from one region or country to

another, and in fact this historic perception has now given way to a much broader concept of the airport as a business destination in its own right and as an economic engine for its region and local communities.

As Alex Kirby, EVP at Airport Cities, puts it: "It comprises an airport-centred commercial core, called the airport city, and outlying corridors and clusters of aviation-linked businesses.

"Airports today are multi-modal, multi-functional enterprises, generating commercial development both within and beyond its boundaries."

The ACE event is globally renowned for attracting key decision makers from the banking, financial, investment and real estate sectors, as well as economic development councils and other local governments from over the world.

From humble beginnings in 2002 in Orlando, Florida, where the first 'Creating Airport Cities' conference welcomed 120 delegates and a handful of exhibitors, the Airport Cities event has grown by more than six times in size over the last ten years.

Last year Denver International Airport (DIA) - now rebranded as Airport City Denver - played host to 800 delegates, 50 major corporate sponsors and more than 60 exhibitors.

About Ekurhuleni

This year, the City of Ekurhuleni has been chosen to host the event as it is home to OR Tambo International Airport - the busiest gateway in Africa - and already has a strategic road map in place to become 'Africa's first Aerotropolis'.

ACE 2013 is expecting to welcome at least 800 delegates, including 110 airport operators representing 45 nations, and more than 60 airport chief executive officers or executive directors.

Press registration for the event is now open, so please contact us if you are interested in attending.

For the full conference programme and list of confirmed speakers please click here.

Teresa Heitor
Assistant Event Manager - Airport Cities
UBM Live
T - +44 (0) 207 579 4836
E - teresa.heitor@ubm.com
W - http://www.airportcities.aero