by Punit Oza, Chief Commercial Officer (CCO) at FrontM
An industry conference brings multiple perspectives and the sharing of knowledge. This leads to learning and actionable insights, which eventually benefit the entire industry ecosystem.
This is exactly what the Maritime Information Services Shipping Summit in Athens delivered.
I was fortunate enough to be a part of multiple panels, as I wear multiple hats and perform multiple roles across the industry. Thanks so much to Lauren Robinson-Stanley, Head of Content at MIS, for the invitation.
The first panel, which I moderated in my role as the Director of Maritime NXT, dealt with “Global Market Dynamics”, which included macro trends, geopolitical tensions and technological challenges faced by companies.
My power panel included Gregory Spourdalakis from Columbia Shipmanagement, Dimitris Monioudis from INTERCARGO, Themis Vagiakos from ABS Group, Elena Matzaridou from Combuss Business Consultants and Charis Stratigis from Signal.
Discussing these issues gave me a clear understanding of how global our industry is. If you take a localised industry.
Let’s say a noodle-making company in Asia with a plant in Thailand, the key aspects it has to deal with are linked to the asset on the ground in Thailand, sourcing the raw materials, ensuring the required machinery is in place and employing mostly a local workforce.
A degree of regional or global interface may come in the form of exports of noodles. Compare that to a shipping company.
Registered in Panama with beneficial ownership in Greece, Commercial and Technical managers based in Singapore, Crew from 5 nationalities, floating across the globe, with a cargo loaded and discharged at multiple ports in Asia & USA and finally a counterparty based in the US.
Not only do they have to deal with all the local regulations in respective countries, but also global regulations governing shipping, with huge impact from wars, piracy, demographics & other geopolitical changes.
No wonder technology featured heavily in our discussion to manage these moving parts. Huge learning which I intend to use for my students in future classes.
For the next panel I moderated, I donned my hat as the former Head of Digital Transformation, Torvald Klaveness, and had a delightful discussion with actual leaders who are getting their “hands dirty” with technology & its adoption – Nikolaos Tsoulakos from Lavinia Corp / Laskaridis Shipping Co. Ltd., Nicolas Otheitis from Target Marine S.A. and Jose Milhazes from GasLog Ltd.
Nikolaos walked us through their high-frequency data platform and how fleet insights on fuel/emissions are transforming decisions.
Nicolas talked about their data-driven strategy and how the technology stack turns ship data into C-suite moves, focusing on practical adoption.
Finally, Jose shared wonderful insights from his C-suite working group on how they select technology winners.
The beauty is that each one of them is involved in a different stage of digital adoption.
Nikolas is more on the tech side of things, while Jose is about putting that tech into solutions, and finally, Nicolas is about implementing those solutions. They shared their insights freely and frankly.
The next panel was the best one for me. A chance to have a conversation with fellow Singaporean Akanksha Batura Pai.
What an inspiring conversation it was. Akanksha contributes so much at the local, regional and global levels – to the industry, to the various organisations that she works with and finally to the next generation of talent that she nurtures and mentors for this industry.
We need more brand ambassadors like her for the maritime industry. What a lovely and uplifting conversation.
The next panel was my first presentation as the Chief Commercial Officer of FrontM. The key technology trends and challenges facing the maritime industry are:
- Connectivity has improved, but capability has not.
- Data-Driven operations are an opportunity; fragmentation is a blocker.
- Automation will be hybrid. Workflow automation is the immediate win.
- Digital resilience suffers under fragmented solution models.
- People-centric digitalisation is foundational to sustainability.
FrontM has approached all these aspects with a holistic, one-stop digital toolbox combining Connect, Engage, Care, Infotain and Learn modules (CECIL), all with a single login. Simple, valuable and scalable digital solutions which solve real pain points.
The fascinating presentations from Rabindra Sah from Indian Register of Shipping, Konstantinos Agas from Alpha Bulkers Shipmanagement Inc, and Dimitris Tsitsamis from ThPA S.A. – Port of Thessaloniki gave very practical solutions that they are developing and using to create efficiency gains and solve customer pain points.
The panel discussion, thereafter moderated by Katerina D. Kokkini from KMK Marine Consultants brought out the key challenges faced but also the simple truth – it is the small things that lead to big changes.
The next day, I put on my hat as the President of the Institute of Chartered Shipbrokers to discuss a topic very close to my heart – Maritime Talent.
Moderating an all-women panel – all stalwarts – Dr Joanna-Eugenia Bakouni from Maersk Training, Heidi Heseltine from Diversity Study Group, Emmanolia Kolias from Mintra, and Vivi Kolliopoulou from WISTA Hellas.
We talked about how to attract the younger generation into the maritime industry, retain talent through constant training, through focus on DEI and finally on mentoring.
We also talked about planning for a future workforce in the face of AI and other developments. The role of all stakeholders is crucial in this area.
The Summit also gave ample opportunities to network and share perspectives with the delegates. Look forward to the future editions!
