Manila Interferry meet to focus on safety in developing world October 15
INTERFERRY is staging its annual conference in Manila October 15 and the UN's International Maritime Organisation (IMO) secretary-general Kitack Lim will be the keynote speaker.
The Interferry 2016 conference on October 17-18 is the centrepiece of a five-day schedule from October 15 that also includes a string of networking events and concludes with a cruise and technical tour on board a FastCat vessel.
Apart from a conference focus on safety, other topics will range from technical innovations - including vessel design, propulsion systems, alternative fuels, automated mooring and anti-fouling coatings - to ticketing IT, urban waterways, legal insights and an insurer's perspective on risk assessment.
Only three Interferry conferences have been held outside Europe and the Americas since the event was last held in the Philippines in 1999.
This year's venue was inspired by key statistics on membership and casualties, as explained by Darrell Bryan, who is acting as Interferry CEO pending a permanent successor to recently-retired Len Roueche.
"The global ferry industry carries more than two billion passengers per year and close to half of these are in SE Asia," said Mr Bryan, the former president and CEO of Seattle-based fast ferry operator Victoria Clipper.
"In contrast, only 22 per cent of our members are from Asia, the Pacific and Africa, so we are determined to recruit in these regions - not least to extend our safety initiative in the developing world, where the vast majority of serious ferry incidents take place. Our invitation to Mr Lim aims to boost both these objectives by allowing a lot of potential members to hear and meet him close to home."
The event's host company is Archipelago Philippine Ferries, whose founder Chet Pastrana is the current Interferry president.
Naval architects from Finland's Deltamarin will explain their DeltaSafer concept for safe and affordable ferries tailor-made for Far East markets. Michael Niemann, fleet manager at Australia's SeaLink Travel Group, will outline a best practice strategy for domestic ferries based on universal uniformity of standards.
Guidance on improving the human factor in safety will be provided by Murray Goldberg, founder and CEO of world-leading specialist Marine Learning Systems, who will review the SailSafe joint management and union scheme in place at BC Ferries in Canada since 2007.
INTERFERRY is staging its annual conference in Manila October 15 and the UN's International Maritime Organisation (IMO) secretary-general Kitack Lim will be the keynote speaker.
The Interferry 2016 conference on October 17-18 is the centrepiece of a five-day schedule from October 15 that also includes a string of networking events and concludes with a cruise and technical tour on board a FastCat vessel.
Apart from a conference focus on safety, other topics will range from technical innovations - including vessel design, propulsion systems, alternative fuels, automated mooring and anti-fouling coatings - to ticketing IT, urban waterways, legal insights and an insurer's perspective on risk assessment.
Only three Interferry conferences have been held outside Europe and the Americas since the event was last held in the Philippines in 1999.
This year's venue was inspired by key statistics on membership and casualties, as explained by Darrell Bryan, who is acting as Interferry CEO pending a permanent successor to recently-retired Len Roueche.
"The global ferry industry carries more than two billion passengers per year and close to half of these are in SE Asia," said Mr Bryan, the former president and CEO of Seattle-based fast ferry operator Victoria Clipper.
"In contrast, only 22 per cent of our members are from Asia, the Pacific and Africa, so we are determined to recruit in these regions - not least to extend our safety initiative in the developing world, where the vast majority of serious ferry incidents take place. Our invitation to Mr Lim aims to boost both these objectives by allowing a lot of potential members to hear and meet him close to home."
The event's host company is Archipelago Philippine Ferries, whose founder Chet Pastrana is the current Interferry president.
Naval architects from Finland's Deltamarin will explain their DeltaSafer concept for safe and affordable ferries tailor-made for Far East markets. Michael Niemann, fleet manager at Australia's SeaLink Travel Group, will outline a best practice strategy for domestic ferries based on universal uniformity of standards.
Guidance on improving the human factor in safety will be provided by Murray Goldberg, founder and CEO of world-leading specialist Marine Learning Systems, who will review the SailSafe joint management and union scheme in place at BC Ferries in Canada since 2007.