Event History
17 Years Of Global Airport Development!
GAD was first held in Copenhagen in 1994 and has been held annually in different European cities ever since, making the 2010 event our 17th! As such, it is the longest running and most well respected airport development and finance event in Europe.
Right from the very start, GAD attracted 150 of the most senior airport operators and owners and has grown to become the established date in the Airport calendar, attracting over 350 attendees annually.
The industry led programme has also grown over the years and now includes over 100 speakers across the 3 day main conference and the1 day Investment summit.
Programme Development and Focus
When the event was first launched it was driven by global airport privatisations and the need to discuss strategy and models for bringing state-owned airports into the private sector. As the industry has grown and evolved, so has GAD and the event now reflects the whole airport sector to include running a successful airport business, airline relations, development financing and infrastructure investment.
Whilst the programme always addresses whatever the most recent developments are (research is conducted each year with up to 150 of the key players in the field), some core areas that are always included are:
- The Economic Outlook
- Fuel Prices
- Airport Deals and Privatisations on the horizon
- New Financing Strategies & Techniques
- Running A Successful Airport Business
- The Airline Market
- Developments in Emerging Markets
- New Investors and Players in the market
- Envrionmental Developments & Regulatory Issues
Attendee Profile
Delegate Profile: The event typically attracts up to 350 attendees from over 26 different countries and from all five continents. Attendees include airport CEOs, senior executives from the banks, infrastructure investors, airlines, aviation experts and consultants.
Speaker Profile: As mentioned above, there are now typically over 100 speakers at the event, selected based on the industry “hot” list and market feedback.
Always An Enjoyable & Informative Experience!
GAD has forged a path for different ways of providing information and networking opportunities to make it a more interesting and useful experience than many other events. These include, amongst others:
- On-stage interviews: Prof. Rigas Doganis’ Head to Heads with leading figures in the airport industry have been an annual highlight as the format facilitates the posing of those questions that no one else dares to ask!
- Champagne networking roundtables – a chance to discuss particular issues in greater depth and meet those interested in the same subjects in a less formal environment
- Electronic polling sessions – find out, live, what the collective views of the industry is on a number of key issues
- The Investing In Airports Summit – a day focussed entirely on investment and financial issues, attracting infrastructure investors, private equity, hedge funds, financiers and lenders to discuss the Airport deal pipeline
- Out of the Box Speakers – we like to bring a different flavour each year to GAD of interesting and inspirational people from outside the industry – previous examples are Sir Ranulph Fiennes (explorer), Richard Noble (leader of the team who broke the speed of sound on land) and Professor Stephane Garelli (IMD Professor and Editor of The World Competitiveness Yearbook).
