The 12th annual Seawork International exhibition and conference was up all round. 
• UP! 479 exhibitors – 10% up on last year
• UP!  7049 visitors – 8% up on last year
• UP!  789 overseas visitors – 11.2% up on last year

Overseas visitors showed a strong increase and were enhanced by naval attachés from South Africa, Nigeria, Ghana, Saudi Arabia, Mexico and Chile.  Captain Oscar Vargas, Head of the Chilean Naval mission was so impressed with his first visit to Seawork that he intends to return next year with members of his London team. 

The international ‘meet the buyer’ feature, organised by the UK Trade & Investment, was a great success for both Seawork exhibitors and visitors, bringing together key decision makers from major overseas companies to meet potential suppliers and develop commercial relationships.  Buyers from Brazil, Canada, China, Costa Rica, France, Greece, India, Italy, Netherlands, Panama and Romania participated using a suite of interview rooms specially built on-site. 

There was a full programme for the 3-day conference and the Annual General Meeting of the UK Harbour Masters’ Association, together totalling some 500 delegates.

Seawork Innovations Showcase Winners

Once again, the Innovations Showcase brought together outstanding examples of innovative engineering and creative development; the worthy winner of the Spirit of Innovation Trophy was KPM De Ltd of Stratford on Avon for the Dry Run Pumping System, which can operate for up to 24 hours without water. 

Within hours of the result being announced, KPM were receiving enquiries from the USA, with their distributor passing an email from one happy customer:  “I read the testimonials from the British military who repeated the cycle of running the pump for 10 minutes dry and 10 minutes wet for three day with no pump failures.  Now I can be just as confident as the military and coast guard!”

The day after receiving the trophy, Sales Director Peter Norman commented:  “The stand has been busy all day, media interest has even included an interview with the Daily Birmingham Post, who are impressed by our policy of depending on local sources for all the major components of our Dry Run Pumping System – it’s how made in Birmingham became known and respected around the world.”

Category award winners were OMC in the Civil Engineering category for their In-Transit Real Time Dynamic Under-Keel Clearance System; Scottlamp in the Safety & Training category for their SOLAS approved SeaSpark automatic LED lifejacket lights and Chameleon in the Vessel Design & Construction category.

Seawork – a great place to do business

Business was brisk throughout the show with many companies anxious to spread their good news.  For example, MST awarded two contracts to power new RIB’s for a European military contract to Volvo Penta and Hamilton Jet.  MST ordered 96 Volvo Penta engines, valued at €2 million, and 34 Water Jets from Hamilton Jet in a contract worth £350,000.

Andrew Sims, Cooney Fabrication Ltd, said on closing day: “The show continues to grow in its importance and diversity, it is fast becoming as an important a show as METS later in the year.  We are very pleased to be associated with Seawork – it’s our third year exhibiting here and we feel this show has been better for us than last year.”

Other Seawork International 2009 exhibitors made the following observations:
Peter Smith, Meercat Workboats:  “We’ve sold two vessels at Seawork worth in excess of £800,000. The commercial marine industry is buoyant, so Seawork has been as good as ever commercially.”

Captain Michael Lloyd, Director, Life Light Solutions: “With the current economic conditions we expected less demand and less visitors, however we have experienced the exact opposite – increased leads, visitors and enquiries.  We will definitely be exhibiting again next year and are delighted to be working with such a well organised exhibition.”

Ian Brownlee, Safehaven Marine: “We have had a great show with good interest from UK and European port authorities who were particularly impressed with the standard of finish we achieve.   The vessel in question is in service with the Port of Southampton, in the accommodation area it features birds eye maple and an outstanding helmsman’s position with full instrumentation to the highest standards.”

Turbo Dynamics Marketing Manager, Natasha Miller, said “We were testing the water with our presence at Seawork International this year to see what it was like and which companies and visitors it attracted. Our presence at the event has proved beneficial already; we will definitely be back again next year.”

Keith Strevens, Cheetah Marine LLP: “This Isle of Wight based company have received some very interesting leads during the show offering both UK and export sales possibilities.  I think we have prospects of completing contracts as a result of around a £¼ million.  Not too bad for three days hard but enjoyable work.”

Roger O’Kane, Association of Diving Contractors:  “We had 44 exhibitors in the DiveWork Pavilion this year, plus of course, the ever popular dive tank on the Quay.  In all honesty, many visitors arrived unsure of the economic prospects facing the dive business, but I have detected more positive feelings about the future of the commercial marine industry, particularly in the diving sector.”