The Transas mission to explain the true benefits and impacts of digitalization to the maritime world will be given new impetus by staging its 2018 global conference to Vancouver, one of North America’s top technology hubs.
The three-day event, which will take place at the Marriott Parq Hotel Vancouver, 6-8 March, has been christened ‘THESIS18 – Enterprise Change’ to focus minds on the steps Transas believes are necessary if its pioneering THESIS vision for a connected maritime operational environment is to become reality.
The equivalent 2017 event in Malta won plaudits for both the scope and depth of its coverage, with maritime executives, research institutions, classification societies and training organisations joined by leaders from other industries, in a free-flowing dialogue that challenged shipping orthodoxies. With the Editor-at-large of Wired suggesting that emerging technologies would disrupt the assumptions upon which today’s industry is based, THESIS17 set the tone for debate within industry circles, on social media and in the trade press for months after the event.
“We are looking forward to three days in Vancouver where key stakeholders can once more connect around powerful ideas and inspired conversations,” said Frank Coles, Transas CEO. “With so much noise in the industry about technology, we seem to have forgotten the ‘why’, as well as the benefits and impacts of change. THESIS18 will bring together maritime industry experts, those from adjacent business and technology disrupters to discuss the real enterprise challenges posed by digitalisation to the maritime industry.”
Enterprise Change requires the maritime industry to be open to fresh ideas, understand fully the digital solutions available, and be prepared to learn from outside its own experience how to maximise the benefits of technology investments, he said.
The THESIS18 agenda would also include scrutiny of misunderstandings pervading the industry when it comes to best practice on cybersecurity, added Coles, where the Transas CEO believes that greater realism will require a “total attitude change”.
Preparations are now well underway to replicate and build upon the successes of 2017 to ensure that the gathering on Canada’s west-coast next spring is equally, if not more, thought-provoking and inspirational.
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