Following on from the fruitful day of discussion at the ISSA Board meeting in London in early June, the ISSA management team took the opportunity to maximise its time in this major maritime capital with a series of important meetings.
Visiting the offices of Elaborate Communications on Tuesday proved to be an excellent opportunity for the Executive Board to see where our new Secretariat is now being run from, and I think we speak for all when we say it was good to see the strength in depth Elaborate has with its staff and resources. Sean Moloney and his team have had a long association with ISSA over the years and his involvement in maritime publishing and PR at the highest level can only put ISSA in good stead.
Our visit to the BASS AGM lunch was a real treat on Wednesday and I would personally like to thank John Davy and Geoff Marchant for their generosity and guidance on the day. Despite the weather, it was an excellent day and a great opportunity for the ISSA Executive Board to meet our British friends and to hear about the issues they are dealing with. And to have a nice lunch on a boat travelling down the River Thames was a real treat.
Myself, our Senior Executive Vice President and the ISSA Treasurer had an opportunity to meet the head of Chartco, Martin Taylor to discuss plans for a digitised ISSA 2019 Catalogue. We discussed a number of important issues and he explained in detail how he believed the catalogue should be distributed to the international maritime community. We have asked for further costings and more details and I will report back when these have been received by the Secretariat, we are waiting for the CHARTCO proposal for now.
The Treasurer and I, took the opportunity to meet representatives from the global shipping industry while we were in London to increase the awareness ISSA, and our first meeting with Richard Ballantyne, CEO of the British Ports Associationwas pivotal considering the work we are doing on port access. We explained our situation in detail to Richard who has pledged to work with ISSA in raising awareness not only in the UK but also through his membership of the International Association of Ports and Harbors. This is one way to gather support for our cause with our friends at the other international associations.
We also had an excellent meeting with the IMO Secretariat who has also pledged to raise awareness of the plight of ship suppliers seeking to supply ships in port. The IMO will explore ways to educate member states on the issue. Our port access document was also formally presented at June’s Maritime Safety Committee meeting and we took the opportunity to view part of the week’s meeting from the plenary floor, very good meeting and possible of further cooperation is on the horizon.
We rounded off a very busy week with an excellent meeting with the Secretary-General of BIMCO, Mr Angus Frew (pictured with our President and Treasurer). Angus was very interested to hear about how ISSA operatesand what issues are affecting our sector. We have pledged to work closely together on a number of issues. Looking forward – not least port access and industry documentation.
Our last meeting was with a SOFTWARE company to discuss a possible business cooperation in the future. This potential company provides, as some of you may know, an E-Procurement platform for both the Buyers and Sellers. This meeting was to only explore the possibilities of the cooperation and to check their strength and capabilities and their intentions. We will be exploring further.
