Looking forward to Posidonia 2024 with Andrew Roberts

 

Hi Andrew. This is your second Posidonia with RightShip – what are you looking forward to? 

Posidonia is one of the biggest events in the maritime calendar, and we’re excited to be right in the centre of it. Across a packed schedule of talks, events, and meetings, we’re looking forward to meeting with industry leaders, innovators, and other stakeholders from across the maritime supply chain.  

Above all, we’re very much looking forward to meeting our customers face-to-face, listening to their ideas, feedback and updates, and helping them to address any issues. Not only does this let us take the temperature of shared challenges across the industry, but it also enables us to think clearly about solutions.  

 

What are the key topics of conversation you expect at this year's Posidonia? 

Two years is a long time, and a lot has changed.  

While the key topics remain the same – decarbonisation, safety, and seafarer wellbeing are the defining issues for the maritime industry in this era, and they will remain so for some time. 

However, what is ever-more evident is the role that data plays as a key enabler. As such, our approach to these issues has evolved. In the past two years, we have learned a lot about the challenges our customers are facing, and how we can better support them with data, technology, and insights. We have also continued to hone our tools to be stronger, clearer, and more effective.  

 

How does RightShip’s vision fit into Posidonia 2024? 

Our vision is a maritime industry that causes zero harm. How do we help our customers achieve that? Again and again, we come back to data. Data, gathered effectively, refined, and properly structured can enable organisations to turn insight in action. And it's not just sustainability – studies show that data-led companies are notably more successful in acquiring and retaining customers and remaining profitable.  

RightShip’s maritime database is world-leading, and we are continually working to make that data as useful as possible to our customers.  

 

How will data help companies reach zero harm? 

If you break down zero harm to social, environmental, and safety, you’ll see that data is the key to progressing towards these goals.  

For instance, our GHG rating is an effective benchmark for evaluating vessels on a level playing field because, through the data, the rating provides meaningful and consistent comparisons between vessels of relevant equivalency. The data becomes actionable and helps organisations manage risk and drive towards decarbonisation. 

Another way to put it is that effective use of data helps us build a systems view, which is more comprehensive than a linear or myopic view of individual data points.  

At RightShip, our focus is on enabling organisations to use the data that we have as effectively as possible.  

This is crucial, as it helps organisations manage safety and sustainability, and improve operations. We believe we are not just creating tools; we are creating pathways to progress.  

 

Can you talk about the importance of partnerships for this new era in the industry? 

As an industry, none of us exist in a vacuum and instead we share a world that demands and deserves a collaborative approach to solve the most pressing challenges. As such, partnerships are a critical part of RightShip’s vision. We aim to be a partner to our customers, working in close dialogue with them and other stakeholders across the supply chain, to help them achieve commercial success and drive towards zero harm.  

Also critical is domain expertise and therefore we also partner with expert and innovative organisations to provide the best possible data and services to our customers. For example, we recently launched a Sanctions Check product. through our partnership with the world-leading sanctions due diligence organisation, the London Stock Exchange Group (LSEG). Through this collaboration, we are giving our customers a significant efficiency gain by combining two best-in-class solutions.  

 

Can you share some changes or developments since the last Posidonia? 

Since Posidonia 2022, and even before it, RightShip has been proactively gathering feedback from our customer base, and translating that feedback into action.  

This has resulted in some big projects: 

• We updated our GHG Rating to calculate and compare a vessel’s designed efficiency against peer vessels using a speed-corrected methodology. The new rating also incorporates EEXI values alongside EVDI and EEDI and moves to a 5-point scale.  

• Our RISQ inspections questionnaire has evolved to account for feedback received from the industry. 

• We have recently implemented a ‘Grace Period’ for incidents, allowing ship owners and managers to verify incident information and prepare close-outs before their vessel’s Safety Score is affected. This was strongly championed by the Greek shipping community. 

• We also launched RightSTORE, our ecommerce platform that democratises maritime data and insights. 

• But maybe the most important in the context of Posidonia is the launch of RightFLEET. To make our data more accessible to owners and managers of smaller fleets, we launched RightFLEET Starter and Lite. These are subscription service with flexible pricing, giving owners and managers access to vital data and services on the RightShip Platform. 

   

Where will we find you at Posidonia? 

I will be joining a panel with the excellent Green-Jakobsen to talk about how data drives human performance on Wednesday June 5th, you can register for the event here. This promises to be a fascinating discussion, exploring the tools and methods companies can use to improve performance in their businesses.  

On the same day, our Chief Commercial Officer Saurabh Dasgupta and Head of Sustainability Jon Lane will be engaged in an exciting product announcement at Sofitel Athens Airport.  

On Thursday, my colleague Taner Umac will join a panel organised by Learning Seaman on the subject of seafarer wellbeing. This is a vital subject for everybody in the industry, and I personally am looking forward to attending this talk, if my schedule permits.  

 

Otherwise, you can find me and my colleagues  at Stand 2.214 in Exhibition Hall 2.