Seatrade Maritime and Lloyd’s List have announced that from 2021 onwards, their event businesses will be combined as one award programme for the maritime community. 

 

The combined portfolio will focus on increasing ROI, as well as non-commercial value, and enhancing guest experience (both in-person and digitally).

 

This unison between the two leading global maritime awards will enable the amalgamation of both entities editorial prowess to focus on further enhancing judging methodology, category criteria and composition of judging panels to ensure finalists and winners get a real competitive advantage from the accolades they receive.

 

The maritime sector is of crucial importance to countries around the world. With the growth in population, maritime activities continue to expand, bringing added benefit and prosperity to economies world over. Despite the challenges of the modern world, including the Covid- 19 pandemic and fluctuating oil prices, the maritime economy continues to thrive. According to a report released by the UNCTAD, maritime trade is expected to continue rising at an average annual growth rate of 3.4 per cent until 2024.

 

This expected growth has only been possible due to the constant development in the field. For decades, the incredible growth story of the global maritime industry has been driven by award programmes like these that play a significant role in ensuring the subsequent growth of the industry. 

 

They also inspire industry players to think beyond the usual and work towards achieving success for themselves and leading the way for growth in the industry.

 

Chris Hayman, Chairman, Seatrade emphasised: “The world is witnessing a comprehensive transformation in various economic sectors, as a result of a number of factors, the most important of which is the recent Covid-19 pandemic. The maritime industry is no exception to the rapid changes. However, to meet the demand of the dynamic market, the industry has only developed further. With every challenge that comes our way, industry players have ensured that they constantly reinvent to keep the supply chain efficient. The Covid-19 pandemic for instance accelerated the use of technology in operations. We saw the rise of disruptive technologies, such as artificial intelligence, automation and the Internet of Things and how they enhanced operations. With the constant development taking place in the industry, it is imperative to have a unified body that can monitor the growth in the industry and honour the best practices that are being applied. This is crucial to promote advancement in the industry and set benchmarks for excellence.”

 

Hayman added: “Our understanding of the industry’s needs prompted us to take this pivotal step of combining our expertise. The teams across both awards will now collectively support the agenda of strengthening the industry through one entity led by Informa Markets. A full calendar of events, the regions they cover and the categories or areas of excellence they will recognise is being developed and we are hoping to share it with industry professionals in due course.”

 

LONG-STANDING REPUTATION

Through this collaboration, both entities hope to build on the prestige of the individual award programmes that are considered as beacons of achievement. The two entities announced that publishing and intelligence services from both Seatrade Maritime and Lloyd’s List will be unaffected by this change. Both companies will continue to develop independent, relevant and unique products and services.

 

Chris Morley, Event Director of Seatrade Maritime said: “For decades, both Seatrade Awards and Lloyd’s List Awards have been the top honours in the industry that professionals truly trust. The support we have received from our reputed partners and sponsors is tremendous. We believe that by coming together, we will be able to give more value and brand exposure to our partners. We are eagerly looking forward to informing them about the changes and reveal our plans for the combined event series for 2021.”

 

Seatrade Awards has a legacy of 17 years, with the latest edition held virtually for the first time last year. Whereas Lloyd’s List Awards was established over two decades ago, providing an unrivalled platform to celebrate innovation, leadership and excellence in shipping. Both awards were organised globally in different regions. By combining their prowess, the new awards will offer an upscaled value for industry players. -- Tradearabia News Service