Seawork Only Up
The 12th annual Seawork International exhibition and conference was up all round: 479 exhibitors - 10% up on last year; 7049 visitors - 8% up on last year and 789 overseas visitors - 11.2% up on last year. Overseas visitors showed a strong increase and were enhanced by naval attachés from South Africa, Nigeria, Ghana, Saudi Arabia, Mexico and Chile.
The international ‘meet the buyer' feature, organised by the UK Trade & Investment, was a great success for both Seawork exhibitors and visitors, bringing together key decision makers from major overseas companies to meet potential suppliers and develop commercial relationships. Buyers from Brazil, Canada, China, Costa Rica, France, Greece, India, Italy, Netherlands, Panama and Romania participated using a suite of interview rooms specially built on-site.
There was a full programme for the three-day conference and the Annual General Meeting of the UK Harbour Masters' Association, together totalling some 500 delegates.
The Innovations Showcase brought together examples of innovative engineering and creative development; the worthy winner of the Spirit of Innovation Trophy was KPM De Ltd of Stratford on Avon for the Dry Run Pumping System, which can operate for up to 24 hours without water.
Category award winners were OMC in the Civil Engineering category for their In-Transit Real Time Dynamic Under-Keel Clearance System; Scottlamp in the Safety & Training category for their SOLAS-approved SeaSpark automatic LED lifejacket lights and Chameleon in the Vessel Design & Construction category.
Business was brisk throughout the show with many companies anxious to spread their good news. For example, MST awarded two contracts to power new RIB's for a European military contract to Volvo Penta and Hamilton Jet. MST ordered 96 Volvo Penta engines, valued at EUR2 million, and 34 Water Jets from Hamilton Jet in a contract worth GBP350,000.
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