Agenda

Tuesday November 18, 2014

13:10 Lunch break
Kindly Sponsored by Dualog
Don’t forget to visit the Dualog stand to enter your business card in the draw for an iPad mini!

17:40 Closing Notes followed by Networking Reception until 19:00
Kindly Sponsored by SpeedCast

*Please note that some sessions and speakers may be subject to confirmation. Digital Ship reserves the right to amend the programme topics, times or speakers as necessary and without notice.

Exhibition

This one day conference offers Sponsors an opportunity of table top display in the catering area as below where all attendees will enjoy coffee, lunch, and drinks, and be networking with their industry peers. A table and chairs with space for banner display will be provided. See the sponsorship tab and find more details.

To enquire about sponsorship/table top exhibition contact:

Exhibition Sales Manager - Youngsuk Park,
T: +44 (0)20 7017 3409,
E: young@thedigitalship.com

>> Download Exhibition info pack (Password protected)

* subject to change as required by the organiser

Sponsorship

The Maritime CIO Forum offers a promotional platform to suppliers providing Ship Shore Communications, Software / Data Services, Shipboard Electronics / Safety / Navigation Systems, Control Systems / Power, Security Technology.

Sponsorship Packages include a table top exhibition in the hallway where catering will take place and all delegates will network at each breaks between sessions and lunch.

>> Download Sponsorship Kit

* subject to change as required by the organiser

For any queries about this event please contact:

Youngsuk Park
Exhibition & Sponsorship Sales Manager
E: young@thedigitalship.com | T: +44 20 7017 3409

Visitor Information

Venue: Hilton Rotterdam
Address: Weena 10, 3012 CM Rotterdam, The Netherlands

Map of Venue:
http://www3.hilton.com/en/hotels/netherlands/hilton-rotterdam-RTMHITW/maps-directions/index.html
Tel: +31 10 710 8011  
Fax: +31 10 710 8111

Where is it taking place?
The Digital Ship CIO Forum is being held at Hilton Rotterdam. The conference facilities will provide delegates with access to Rotterdams vibrant nightlife, an intensely interesting maritime tradition and a wealth of top-class museums all make it a must-see part of any visit to the Netherlands. Above all, Rotterdam is the architecture city of the Netherlands that stimulates innovation and an always changing skyline. Located in the heart of the business district and only three blocks from the World Trade Center, the Hilton Rotterdam hotel is 15 minutes by car from Rotterdam The Hague Airport.

Special hotel rates for CIO delegates from 15th – 19th November (subject to availability)
Please quote: CIO Forum
Click here to go to hotel reservation page

Delegate Rate 

• Single Deluxe Rooms € 129
• Double Deluxe Rooms € 149

Also on offer:
Executive rooms

• Single Deluxe Rooms € 159
• Double Deluxe Rooms € 179
  

Above mentioned prices include 6% VAT, breakfast & internet.
The hotel requires a credit card from each client to guarantee the booking.
Excludes city tax of 4.5 % per room per night.

Email: events.rotterdam@hilton.com
 
Alternatively other accommodation:
http://www.agoda.com/city/rotterdam-nl.html

Transportation options: 
Located in front of the metro and tram stop, the hotel is within a 5-minute walking distance from the train station and the WTC. Ahoy concert hall can be reached within 10 minutes by metro. Rotterdam- The Hague Airport is a 15 minute drive from the hotel.

Taxi:
http://www.taxicaller.com/country/nl/rotterdam_taxi.php

Parking near the venue:
Parking is easy at Hilton Rotterdam, a downtown Rotterdam hotel that offers valet and self-parking for hotel guests and visitors. Valet parking drop off and return service is € 30.00 (Kruiskade 9). Please note: the maximum headroom of the garage is 1.90 m.

Visa
Please note that Digital Ship Ltd. cannot assist you with applying for or obtaining visas. For information about visa requirements and application procedures please contact your local Embassy or Consulate.

Sightseeing guide:
http://en.rotterdam.info/visitors/about-rotterdam/first-time-in-rotterdam/

Presentations

Gallery

Report

The Maritime CIO Forum Rotterdam saw shipowners and operators come together with airtime suppliers and distributors to discuss issues currently affecting maritime satcoms and IT: data analysis and usage, innovation in maritime communications and the shipping market context.

As chairman Chris Insall pointed out in his opening remarks, vendors and service providers need to understand the scale of the challenge, typified by the giant Maersk Triple E Containerships. What does the increasing scale mean at a time when expenditure is still tight but demand is growing?

To Station 711’s Director of Channel Development Kyle Hurst it means optimising not just the channel but the data itself. Something of an advocate for the development of standards to support data transfer and analysis, he positioned a greater degree of remote monitoring and telemetry as the first stage towards a future of unmanned ships.

For the moment, however, he asked the industry to consider what level of data adds value to operations. If that level was increasing, then shouldn’t providers agree on standards to shape the infrastructure? At present both sides are working to best fit rather than best practices, he said.

Dan Veen Senior Business Developer at TNO outlined how the iShare at Sea project is trying to do just that by increasing availability of maritime assets. Veen agreed that standards are currently lacking and stressed that open standards did not mean there could not be competition. The next billion of internet users he said would be machines not humans and a lack of standards was holding back the ability to innovate.

The subsequent panel also included contributions from Rene Teichmann of Rickmers, Freek Bomhof of TNO and Jose Milhazes of Stolt Tankers, discussing the value of data transfer – where the information resides and who has the ability to leverage its value.

The panel noted that some vendors were reluctant to share the data with third parties for commercial reasons but as the volume increases, the need to share becomes greater: co-operation was better than coercion. But are operators willing to invest? Milhazes reminded the delegates what motivates owners: ROI is the first requirement he puts to any proposal for new technology development.

Head of Maritime for Airbus Defence and Space Tore Morten Olsen is a man with much on his plate right now but he took an admirably down to earth approach on efficiency and business value. His main message was stop focussing on hardware and instead consider applications and service quality. The sell side has gone some way in moving from cost to value in the communications channel and the industry is ready to use it. Don’t focus on the band, he suggested but instead on controlling it.

Asked about the sale of the Airbus maritime business, he said didn’t think more consolidation would affect customers and he said the company was still open to new ideas. Having met with some of the market’s potential disrupters he said the key was to keep ship at the heart of the business.

Raimo Warkki does just that running IT for the Stena ferry fleet and said new services and capacity are an opportunity to increase the demands the owner can make on suppliers. Even so, he predicted there might never be enough capacity to fully run internet onboard and shipping would always be behind the connectivity curve.

Imtech Marine’s Director of Global Services Rene ten Brinke focussed on the ‘pain in the ass’ for shipowners: maintenance. The time and money that maintenance requires, he suggested can be dramatically impacted by a better communications plan. Adopting a strategy that embraced failure effect analysis and predictive maintenance could go beyond simple savings in downtime and costs.

Dualog CEO Morten Lind-Olsen gave an uncharacteristically downbeat view of the future in which the very low average bandwidth fails to keep pace with terrestrial speeds gains. He also suggested it was much harder than many believe to get crew to pay for internet access. He agreed with Airbus though that the solution, rather than the cost or the technology was the key to adoption - more owners are buying internet control software and learning to live in a limited internet environment.

This gloomy prognosis was somewhat dispelled by Spliethof IT Director Peter Van de Venne who demonstrated how a specialist owner could get the connectivity they wanted by offering crew combination of free and paid for airtime – enough to cover the cost of middleware and apparently at speeds fast enough to keep them happy.

The subsequent panel saw chairman Chris Insall point out that the theme of control had extended to Inmarsat which was itself ending its ‘unlimited’ airtime plans. Inmarsat’s Michiel Meijer suggested that the market would see a more attentive supplier under new Maritime President Ronald Spithout, but agreed there was a need for consistent services; customers were confused about which boxes and services to choose.

In terms of the next generation services that would power the brave new world of data collection and analysis, there were predictions that the number of global VSAT players could go as low as three or four, but there was agreement that HTS had the potential to enable far more applications than maritime users have been used to. There might never be ‘enough’ bandwidth to close the supply gap but service growth is keeping pace with demand.

In the final session, DNV-GL’s Bjorn Kjaerand Haugland reminded delegates of the broader maritime landscape: rising emissions, higher costs, more regulation, new approaches to hull forms and materials. Shipping is moving at a faster pace and looking for solutions that support smarter maintenance and more automation.

Finally Claude Rousseau of Northern Sky Research gave the satellite industry perspective on maritime. Shipping is feeling some of the big trends – notably M2M demand – but he said more VSAT mobility users will be targeted with the FSS providers’ bread and butter traffic: video.

The advent of HTS will unblock some of the existing ‘jams’ in connectivity and Rousseau suggested NSR’s own estimates of aeronautical market demand would probably fall short of reality. With operators already embracing HTS, more services would be available in future, which also suggests a ‘bigger pie’ for maritime – a total addressable market as big as 110,000 ships he suggested.

It was a positive note on which to end the Forum. Though Rousseau predicted more consolidation and increased competition, from a user perspective there would be greater redundancy, lower prices and more availability, spurring growth on all platforms.