“Another excellent tug Conference. The venue was great, the arrangements wonderful as ever, and the company as stimulating as ever. Roll on Vancouver!”
Charles Hume, chief executive, The Shipowners' Protection Ltd
ITS 2008 was a resounding success, with not only an unprecedented number of delegates, exhibitors and visitors attending, but also a remarkable amount of positive feedback regarding contacts made, business leads established and deals struck.
The Convention was attended by 422 delegates from 48 countries, whilst the exhibition, which sold out completely with a total of 108 exhibiting companies from 26 countries, drew in more than 1,500 visitors.
Organiser Allan Brunton-Reed said: “Whilst we expected Singapore to be a good Convention, it exceeded all our expectations. The huge enthusiasm for the event reflects the current buoyant market for the industry, with yards around the world working to maximum capacity.”
Feedback from delegates has been extremely positive.
“On our questionnaires, around 90 per cent have ticked the ‘excellent' box, which is wonderful, with many asking what we are going to do to top the Convention when we go to Vancouver in two years time. We will endeavour to do our best!”
The Convention
This
was officially opened by Capt Muhd Segar, director of port operations in the Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore, and the Inaugural Paper was by Ben Vree, CEO, Smit International.
Vree used his address to give a clear call for proactive measures by the shipping industry to safeguard the environment.
“I believe that the environment is one of the greatest challenges of our era for our industry,” he said.
“We will need to look critically at the engines we use and where possible invest in cleaner engines using different sources of energy. Recycling, design changes and procedural modifications are as important… we as an industry have a duty to ensure that these provisions will be developed.”
On the middle day of the Conference, the so-called ‘Green Wednesday', the papers concentrated the minds of the delegates on various environmental issues, including the public's perception of the role of salvors, the path towards a carbon neutral tug company and, in the afternoon, various ideas for the development of ‘greener' tugs.
The Book of Papers from the Conference will be available in August, price £100 (plus £10 p&p for non-UK orders). For the first time, the volume will include a disk with all the Powerpoint presentations from the papers. For details please call +44 (0)1225 868821 or click here to order online.
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The entertainment
The 'off-duty'
programme at the Conference was, as usual, the perfect complement to the ‘serious' business of the papers and exhibition. Receptions hosted by Damen Shipyards, Sanmar, Xeropoint, The Glosten Associates, the ISU and Smit International ensured socialising and networking continued every evening, while the Gala Dinner, sponsored by Caterpillar, was a particularly splendid event, with live entertainment from a Beatles tribute band, The Beatels, and a superb performance by a two-man ‘lion', which leapt from pole to pole high above the ground.
Also at the event, Henk de Jong, director ofbusiness development at Wärtsilä Ship Power, received a special award as the 400th delegate to register for the Conference, while the Conference's long-time support Silver Armada Dish Award was presented by Allan and Liz Brunton-Reed to: Raymond Toh, Ton Kooren, Jim Shirley, Mike Allen, Mac and Davida Mackay, Tim Cowley, Graeme Phillips, Chan Mun Lye, Evert Van Tellingen, Peter Lindenau and Sami Uotinen (on behalf of his father, Esa Uotinen).
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The 1st Damen Pushy Cat Golf Trophy was held at the exquisite Tanah Merah Golf and Country Club on the Monday of Convention week, and saw six teams of four players competing in temperatures of 35 degrees C and 80 per cent humidity for the title. The victorious players in the winning team, Flight Dubai, were: Capt Dave Hopkins, Jeannine Claus, Capt Simon Cook and Bruno Sallavuard.
After the Conference, delegates and their spouses climbed aboard two contemporary 43m Chinese junks with pagoda-style roofs and ornately carved tigers and dragons on a three-hour tour, sponsored by The Shipowners Protection Ltd.
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Vast rescue tug sails in
Invited guests were treated to a buffet reception in Singapore Port aboard Nanhai jiu 101 , China Rescue and Salvage's biggest and most sophisticated rescue tug.
The 20,000hp vessel, which can rescue up to 200 people at a time, has a hospital on board complete with operating room and emergency ‘hot room'. It was delivered at the end of last year, and is 109.7m long with a breadth of 16.2m and a top speed of 22 knots. It has a helicopter platform and is capable of joint air-sea operations.
Capt Jiahui Song, director general of CRS (inset, above), said: “We expect our rescue tugs of this type to continue to play a powerful role in future rescue and salvage operations, especially in severe sea conditions.”
CRS has more than 200 vessels, 11 helicopters and a team of some 10,000 staff. Four of its rescue helicopters were carrying out relief missions in China's earthquake-striken province of Sichuan at the time, and in recognition of Capt Song's commitment to attend the ITS reception in spite of his involvement in the rescue operation, Allan Brunton-Reed organised a collection for the victims of the earthquake at the ITS Gala Dinner. The sum of around Sing$5,000 was collected, which Mr Brunton-Reed matched to produce a total donation of Sing$10,000.
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ITS 2010 Vancouver
The next ITS Convention is due to take place in Vancouver in May 2010. There will be updates to the ITS 2010 pages on this website from time to time so please be sure to visit regularly. The deadline for the submission of paper synopsis is March 2009. Please submit your suggestions before this date. Should you wish to participate in the exhibition or register as a delegate, please email the ITS 2010 Secretariat, Valerie Harris by email val@tugandsalvage.com.
What the best think of the best
“Thank you for a wonderful programme in Singapore with just the right mix between work and pleasure and so well organised. Well done.”
David Offin, managing director, J P Knight (Caledonian) Ltd
“Superbly organised, wonderful programme. A credit to the industry.”
David Pockett, independent consultant, LOC
“The show exceeded all expectations and I believe it was possibly the best show we have ever exhibited at in terms of leads generated and bridges built. Well done to Allan and the whole team, a great job well done. I look forward to the membership renewal and meeting you again in Vancouver .”
Simon Taylor, managing director, Jeyco (1992) Pty Ltd
“Best yet. I really enjoyed the speakers' programme – even more than earlier ITS Conventions.”
Jim Shirley, partner, Holland & Knight LLP
“I am amazed that you manage to keep improving something which was already pretty good the first time I attended. It was an excellent week – so thank you all.”
Alan Loynd, managing director, Branscombe Marine Consultants Ltd
“The exhibition provided us with great contacts for following up and several potentially very large sales enquiries.”
Steve Dyer, marine projects and key account manager, Jotun Australia Pty Ltd
A big thank you for putting on such an excellent Exhibition and Conference. I know all of us at Samson really enjoyed both the business and social side. To be greeted by all your happy smiling faces and ‘can do' attitude means so much to us attendees. As the Governor of California said on many occasion, I'll be back – and for sure Samson will! Tugnology and ITS 2010 – we will be there.”
Robin Collett, regional sales manager, Samson Rope
“Very good meetings, especially as the marine knowledge of the visitors was very profound. My colleague in charge of sales was very satisfied about the exhibition. Perfect. You have everything on hand.”
Martin Gadermeier, marketing manager, Palfinger HTC Systems GmbH
“Congratulations on such a successful and very well organised event! It was perfect.”
Claudia van Andel, public relations manager, Smit
“I want to express to you in the name of my organisation, my congratulations for the success of the Convention, and my personal gratitude for the attention and facilities we have received from the persons of your team.”
Carlos Arppe, production director, Industrias Ferri, SA
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