On the June 17, 2016 in Sopot at the Faculty of Economics at the University of Gdańsk took place the 8th Science Conference - "InfoGlobMar 2016". This year's edition of the conference was organized by the Institute of Maritime Transport and Seaborne Trade in cooperation with the Departments of Logistics and Transport Systems as well as Economics and Management from the Gdynia Maritime University. The range of the topics of the conference concerned the main areas of scientific research conducted at the Institute of Maritime Transport and Seaborne Trade and Departments co-organizers. During the conference, the current problems of theory and practice concerning the directions of the economic development and the enterprises were discussed.

The honorary patronage over the conference was assumed by: The Ministry of Maritime Economy and Inland Navigation, The Mayor of the City of Gdańsk - Paweł Adamowicz, The Mayor of the City of Sopot - Jacek Karnowski, The Mayor of the City of Gdynia - Wojciech Szczurek, His magnificent dr hab. Bernard Lammek, professor of UG, Rector of the University of Gdańsk, His magnificent Rector of the Gdynia Maritime University – prof. dr hab. Piotr Jędrzejowicz, Director of the Maritime Office in Gdynia and the Customs Chamber in Gdynia. The media patronage of the conference was taken by the magazine “Namiary na Morze i Handel” and portal gospodarkamorska.pl The partners of the conference were the Port of Gdynia Authority SA, the Port of Gdansk Authority SA, the Maritime Bulk Terminal and the Polish Maritime Cluster. The chairman of the Scientific Council was prof. dr hab. Janusz Żurek.

In debates took part employees of the University of Gdańsk and the Gdynia Maritime University, representatives of the University of Gdańsk, the University of Zielona Góra, the University of Szczecin, the Polish Naval Academy, the West Pomeranian University of Technology Szczecin, the Gdańsk University of Technology, the Warsaw University of Technology, Andrzej Frych Modrzewski Krakow University, the University of Economics in Katowice, Maritime Institute in Gdańsk, AGH University of Science and Technology, WSB Universities, and the representatives of business practice such as the Port of Gdynia Authority, Port of Gdansk Authority SA, Customs Chamber in Gdynia, Maritime Office in Gdynia and the Polish Chamber for Forwarding and Logistics.

The conference was also attended by guests from foreign Universities: University of Rijeka, University of Dubrovnik, Clark University in Boston, University of "1 Decembrie 1918" Alba Julia in Romania and Bremen University of Applied Sciences Centre for Maritime Studies. There have been published 36 articles in the following journals: “Studies and Papers of the Institute of Maritime Transport and Seaborne Trade” (ISSN 2080-6302 - nr 13/2016) and the electronic scientific magazine “Contemporary Economy” (ISSN 2082-677X).As the previous years, the conference was divided into plenary and thematic session.The first part of the conference, chaired by prof. dr hab. Janusz Żurek and dr hab. Krzysztof Dobrowolski, prof. UG concerned the challenges faced by Polish companies. The interesting papers were delivered by Julian Skelnik (The Port of Gdansk Authority SA) - Challenges faced by Polish seaports, Ryszard Szwedow (Customs Chamber in Gdynia) - Practical implementation of the Act on Facilitation of Business Activity – 24h ports; Jan Młotkowski (Maritime Office in Gdynia)- Application of maritime traffic monitoring systems for the safety of navigation, dr hab. Maciej Matczak, prof. AMG (the Gdynia Maritime University) - A year after implementation of SECA - impacts and effects for the maritime transport sector, dr hab. Przemysław Borkowski, prof. UG (the Uniwersytet of Gdańsk)- Determinants of risk analysis in critical infrastructure of the energy sector. In the further part of the meeting, there was a debate of practitioners on the subject of cooperation between science and business in the area of development of smart specializations of Pomerania, chaired by dr hab. Marek Grzybowski prof. AMG. The debate was attended by: Katarzyna Gruszecka-Spychała (Vice-President of the City of Gdynia), Wiesław Byczkowski(Deputy Marshal of the Pomeranian Voivodeship), Aleksandra Jankowska (President of the Pomeranian Special Economic Zone), Piotr Soyka (President of Remontowa Holding SA), Agnieszka Mikolcz (Mikolcz-Trowski Law Firms of Solicitors), Jarosław Kaczorowski (Director of the Baltic Port of New Technologies), Joanna Mikolcz-Trowski Przedrzymirska (Maritime Institute in Gdańsk), Jowita Zielinkiewicz (The Port of Gdansk Authority SA), Zbigniew Karpiński (President of the Ship Technology Center).

The second part of the meeting was held in three problem teams:

Team 1 - A company in a global environment;

Team 2 - Challenges and problems of maritime transport;

Team 3 - Development of trade, transport and tourism.

The role of moderator of the Team 1 was held by dr hab. Przemysławowi Borkowski, prof. UG (the University of Gdańsk). The role of moderator of the Team 2, dedicated to the challenges and problems of maritime transport, was held by prof. dr hab. Andrzej S. Grzelakowski – the chairman (Maritime Institute in Gdańsk) and prof. dr hab. Jerzy Kujawa (the University of Gdańsk). Development of trade, transport and tourism was the subject of the third panel led by prof. Edna Mrnjavac (University of Rijeka) and dr Olga Dębicka (the University of Gdańsk).

Prof. Dr Aneta Oniszczuk-Jastrząbek