Full Speed Ahead: MaritimeProfessional, the Worldwide Maritime Industry and – You?

Throwing Risk to the Wind

Hamburg, Germany: Buoyed by more than 50,000 trade visitors from as many as 60 different countries and 2,000+ enthusiastic exhibitors, SMM 2010, the 24th shipbuilding, machinery & marine technology, international trade fair came to a successful close last week after four action-packed days. Giving powerful stimulus to an industry which – by all outward appearances in Hamburg – appears to be rebounding with vigor, the world’s premier shipbuilding industry fair touted environmental protection and offshore activities as the innovation drivers for today’s maritime markets.

Also serving notice that innovation is not confined to industry alone, the publishers of Maritime Reporter and Engineering News, MarineNews and Marine Technology Reporter announced the launch of a new print publication. Prompted by and directly on the heels of the successful inception of the MaritimeProfessional.com Web site, Associate Publisher Greg Trauthwein announced that its newest product, a quarterly publication aptly named MaritimeProfessional, would produce its first issue in the first quarter of 2011. The focus of the premier edition will be, appropriately enough, “maritime risk.”

Key Issues: Key News

As the last tradeshow booth and a dizzying array of new marine equipment were being packed up and sent home, Bernd Aufderheide, President and CEO Hamburg Messe und Congress (HMC) declared, “SMM once again demonstrated its leading role as the foremost global fair for the industry. We covered all the present and future key issues for the maritime industry”. Not coincidentally, that is also the goal of the industry’s newest print vehicle. As MaritimeProfessional comes out of the gate, its serious, tightly focused slant on business, regulatory affairs and the key issues facing shipowners, shipbuilders and maritime professionals everywhere will quickly position it as the “must” read business journal for the industry.

Heading up MaritimeProfessional’s Quarterly business journal will be Joseph Keefe, long time maritime industry publication editor and respected industry journalist. Keefe’s background as a professional mariner, maritime consultant and the experience afforded by twenty years of boots-on-the-ground industry experience position him well to lead the new endeavour. MaritimeProfessional will provide readers with in-depth analysis of today’s most important issues, and arrives at perhaps the most critical juncture for the maritime industry in the last fifty years.

Defining Risk:

At SMM, the subject of risk was a common thread, even amid the upbeat prognosis from attendees on the prospect for a robust rebound for maritime markets. Risk is everywhere: commodity trading, ship selection, pollution and the environment, personnel, finance, regulatory changes, the ever changing winds of politics, energy and fuel pricing, charter terms and timing – the list is endless. Trying to cover all of these metrics within the guise of just one edition of today’s periodicals would be anything but comprehensive and ill-advised. The arrival of MaritimeProfessional on your desk in the first quarter of 2011 will change all of that.
   
Back at SMM, more than one third of trade visitors came from outside Germany and the vast majority of international trade visitors gave a positive assessment of today’s economic situation and the prospects for further improvement. From North America, attendance was decidedly less robust. Given the brisk pace of business being done at the show despite the lingering effects of a wounded global economy, those that did make the long flight were glad that they did. Exhibitors did temper their optimism with a degree of caution. “Green” technologies, offshore engineering and ship financing were the keynote themes at this year’s international trade fair, which already is experiencing brisk registration for SMM 2012.

Risky Business

In a global business climate that still exudes uncertainty from any number of variables, maritime professionals from all over the globe flocked to Hamburg last week hoping to jumpstart the world’s most important business: ocean transportation. Some might call that risky business. Still others might characterize the startup of a new print publication as even riskier. From our viewpoint, the greatest risk exists for those who stay on the sidelines. Arguably, the opportunities of today outweigh tomorrow’s risks. In the first quarter of 2011 – that’s just a few short months away – MaritimeProfessional’s premier print edition will define, predict and guide its readers through the gauntlet of risk.

Where do you and your organization fit into the big picture of risk? Let Managing Editor Joseph Keefe know by contacting him at keefe@marinelink.com. View the Editorial Calendar and media kit for MaritimeProfessional by clicking HERE. – MarPro.