A dedicated conference dealing with ECDIS and Electronic Navigational Charts was long overdue. This is the conclusion drawn from the World ECDIS Day, an industry initiative which brought together stakeholders involved in ENC production and its use. The interest in this first time event, which took place on September 16th in Hamburg, was just overwhelming and organizers even had to turn down some registrations as all sessions and panel discussions were booked out within short time.
Gilles Bessero, director of the IHO, opened the event with an impressive summary about the ECDIS carriage requirement and electronic chart production. Some 250 participants from all around the world attended workshops, presentations and discussions dealing with the ECDIS carriage requirement, type approval, ENC distribution, ECDIS training and hydrographic survey. Capt. Osamu Marumoto of the IMO and Michael Bergmann, president of CIRM, were among several speakers providing interesting news about and insight into all ECDIS-related matters.
The World ECDIS Day ended with an exciting evening event providing a stunning view on the port of Hamburg on the 20th floor of the “Atlantic Haus”. One of the evening’s highlights was certainly the award ceremony introducing the following winners:
ECDIS Trainer of the Year - Capt. Peter Möller, Promacindo, Jakarta, Indonesia
Best ECDIS Implementation Award - Geden Lines, Istanbul, Turkey
Innovation Award - Carnival Maritime, Hamburg, Germany
Navigation Safety Award - Fleet Management Limited, Hongkong
Lifetime Achievement Award - Prof. Dr. Bernhard Berking, Hamburg, Germany
The next WORLD ECDIS DAY is planned for 2017.
