This year’s Cruise Shipping Miami, already the 29th, takes place from 11 to 14 March at the Miami Beach Convention Center. The new section »Green Cruising Showcase« provides a platform especially for exhibitors supplying environmental solutions
The international conference and exhibition for the cruise industry annually draws more than 10,000 attendees and over 1,000 exhibiting companies[ds_preview] from over 121 countries to Florida. As in recent years, the organizers of the Cruise Shipping Miami (CSM), UBM Live, have composed an extensive conference program during the exhibition days.
This year they have revamped the agenda. Developed to be more in-depth and content-rich, the conference sessions are organized into four streams that will thematically link sessions daily Tuesday through Thursday. The streams include »Shipbuilding, Operations and Technology«, »Destinations and Ports«, »Market Segments«, and »Product Development«. Each panel will take 90 minutes. The »Green Cruising Showcase«, a special section of the trade show, is set to debut at this years CSM. It brings together exhibitors supplying environmental solutions to cruise lines into a single pavilion and provides a platform for those exhibitors to present their products and services directly to representatives of cruise lines. With the increasing emphasis on environmental best practices and stricter regulations on everything from cleaning products to coatings to recycling and wastewater treatment, cruise companies are sourcing products and services that comply with regulations and improve efficiencies.
Not only suppliers of »green« products and services will be collected into a dedicated sector pavilion for the first time, exhibitors will give 25-minute product talks in an innovative presentation theater located on the trade show floor.
Conference programme on Monday
The World Cruise Tourism Summit opens on the first day of the conference from 09:30 to 17:00 h. Organized in cooperation with Florida-Caribbean Cruise Association, the summit will feature a series of round-table discussions by cruise experts and Cruise Lines International Association (CLIA) representatives on pertinent industry topics.
… on Tuesday
The »State of the Industry« session, the only plenary session during the event, with top cruise line executives and industry figures addressing a wide range of trends and frank assessments of the state of the business, will run from 09:30 to 11:30 h.
It will be followed by four concurrent panels from 15:00 to 16:30 h in each of the streams: »Newbuilding Outlook« with the participants Enrico Buschi (Fincantieri Can-
tieri Navali Italiani) and Raoul Jack (PFJ Maritime); »Expanding Markets« including participants Jorge Luiz de Mello (Port of Rio de Janeiro), Brett Jardine (CLIA Australasia), Anthony Lau (Hong Kong Tourism Board), and John F. Tercek (Royal Caribbean Cruises); panellists of »Upscale Cruising« will be Ellen Bettridge (Silversea Cruises), Roberto Giorgi (V. Ships Leisure SAM), Richard D. Meadows (Seabourn), and Gregg Michel (Crystal Cruises); finally, the panel »Marketing and Distribution« consists of the participants Jim Berra (Carnival Cruise Lines), Jeffrey Sherota (World Travel Holdings), and Andy Stuart (Norwegian Cruise Line).
Furthermore, from 15:00 to 16:30 h the Coast Guard Forum takes place.
… on Wednesday
The morning sessions will run from 09:30 to 11:00 h with another four panels at the same time: »Revitalization & Repair« with P K Ong (Sembawang Shipyard); »Europe« with participants David Dingle (Carnival UK) and Richard Vogel (Tui Cruises); »Expedition Cruising« where participants Terri Haas (Compagnie du Ponant), Tim Jacox (Un-Cruise Adventures), and Daniel Skjeldam (Hurtigruten) take part; as well as a panel concerning »Social Media«.
The afternoon sessions will include: »The Low-Energy Ship and the Green Agenda« where Tom Degerman (STX Finland Oy), Paolo Moretti (RINA Services), and Shingen Takeda (Mitsubishi Heavy Industries) will participate; »The Caribbean and Mexico«; »National Brands«; as well as »Maximizing Onboard Revenue« for which following experts could be won: Anthony H. Kaufman (Princess Cruises) and Ole-Kristian Sivertsen (Maritime Communications Partners). All panels will take from 15:00 to 16:30 h.
… on Thursday
Also this year, CLIA arranges the Travel Agent Thursday training on how to become the travel agent everyone wants. The Morning conference will face the topics »Ship of the Future«; »Cruise Line/Port Interface« with participants Stavros Hatzakos (MedCruise), Adam Sharp (Royal Caribbean Cruises), and William Tetham (Port Authority of Jamaica); »Shorex Programs« to be dis-
cussed by Amilcar Cascais (Carnival Cruise Lines) and Corryn Morissey (Atlantic Canada Cruise Association); and »Human Resources at Sea«.
The panels in the afternoon will be: »Safety in Shipping« with Trond Arne Schistad (DNV); »Terminal Development and Security in Port and Onboard« to be attended by Luis Ajamil (Ajamil & Partners), Greg Alcorn (Oncam Grandeye), Eric Friedman (HR-Marsec), and Tom Spina (New York City Economic Development Corporation/NY Cruise); as well as »River Cruise« with Katharine Bonner (Tauck River & Small Ship Cruising), Helge Grammerstorf (SeaConsult HAM), and John W. Waggoner (American Queen Steamboat Company); and further »Hotel and Catering Procurement« which is attended by Mike Flesch (Norwegian Cruise Line), Deborah Golden (Golden & Company), and Maxine Krajniak (Uti).
