A mainly European dominated participant list was complemented with North American executives, some Middle and Far East attendees and a delegate from Australia.
The second such event started in Hamburg on Tuesday afternoon when many of the participants had an opportunity to visit Carnival Maritime's fleet operations centre located in the city whilst others undertook a tour of the Airbus factory which employs over 12,500 people.
CLIA global chairman Arnold Donald and CLIA Europe chairman Kerry Anastassiadis hosted a dinner Tuesday evening ahead of a morning of business sessions which took place in the Westin Hamburg, part of the Elbphilharmonie, the city's new concert hall.
The two chairmen addressed the opening session on Wednesday, before four cruise line president's spoke on geopolitical issues (Celestyal's Anastassidis), the regulatory environment (Carnival UK's David Dingle), source markets (Pullmantur's Richard Vogel) and brand variation (Hapap-Lloyd Cruises' Karl Pojer).
Carnival's Michel Nestor moderated a following panel which focussed on some of the problems ports and destinations and cruise lines are facing regarding infrastructure requirements.
Participants then moved to the Altona Cruise Terminal to board the Cunard vessel and were welcomed onboard by Dingle, during an afternoon tea.
Thursday's business sessions turned to technology related safety enhancements, developing shorex in a congested environment, environmental policy and effectively connecting source markets with distinct cruise ship itineraries plus a procurement workshop.
Delegates also had the chance to partake in behind the scenes tours of Queen Elizabeth including to the bridge, the galley and backstage theatre and engineroom.
Prior to the farewell dinner, a dozen or so teams participated in a hotly contested pub quiz with a 'cruise' theme in the ship's Golden Lion pub.
Speaking at the close of the second Summit at Sea, Anastasssiadis told Seatrade Cruise News he was pleased with the progress CLIA is making in creating a environment for collaboration and close discussion: 'We continue to build a trust between the cruise lines and stakeholders through frequent and honest communication.
'He said over the next four months CLIA Europe is concentrating on building up a picture of the key issues the cruise industry is facing and will be engaging with partners, including various port associations across Europe, technical suppliers and shipyards, in creating the right data bank so together we can establish initiatives on how to proceed going forward.
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