Port of Football 2025: networking, dining and watching the game

Last Friday, March 7, it was time for the annual Port of Football event, which focuses on networking, dining and watching soccer.

• Over 100 entrepreneurs were updated on the energy challenges in the North Sea Canal Area (NZKG) and possible solutions. Rosan Kocken, representative of the Province of North Holland emphasized the crucial role of the industry in making North Holland more sustainable and the joint responsibility to realize this task. Maaike Wever from Programmabureau NZKG talked about the Cluster Energy Strategy as an important tool for gaining insight into the energy needs and sustainability plans of industrial companies. Cluster director Ingrid Post explained that she can address bottlenecks of entrepreneurs in the process of becoming more sustainable to governments in the region, grid operators and the state, in order to come up with an appropriate approach together. Robert Kuik of TenneT took us through the Dutch energy challenges, the situation in the NZKG and TenneT’s solutions until 2034. He also discussed what entrepreneurs can already do now to contribute to this.
• Then 4 entrepreneurs who have appropriate solutions for the discussed challenges in the NZKG spoke: Gem Beemsterboer of Port of Amsterdam and ECAH – Energie Coöperatie Amsterdamse Haven, Maarten Quist of GIGA Storage, Martijn van der Velde of Zwart Techniek and Rene Peters of TNO. It became a lively discussion with the conclusion that there is willingness for cooperation between the government and the business community to ensure that the NZKG becomes more sustainable and thus remains attractive for entrepreneurs in the future.
• During the match dinner, catered by Grand Café Staal, there was time for networking and an afterthought of the substantive part. With the match of Telstar against FC Dordrech,t with a large victory for the team from Velsen, we closed the day festively.

Port of Football is a joint initiative of AYOP (Offshore Energy Association), IJPOS (IJmuiden Port Services), ORAM – Ondernemend Amsterdam, Techport and Citymarketing Velsen with the support of Port of Amsterdam, Zeehaven IJmuiden NV, Programmabureau Noordzeekanaalgebied and of course Telstar 1963 N.V.

A selection of photos by Machiel Kraaij can be viewed below.