Seatrade Cruise News is part of the Informa Markets Division of Informa PLC

This site is operated by a business or businesses owned by Informa PLC and all copyright resides with them. Informa PLC's registered office is 5 Howick Place, London SW1P 1WG. Registered in England and Wales. Number 8860726.

Interactive workshops to hone growth strategy at Canada/New England Symposium

66bf314495efa071580997f7d093dd6d_XL
New York - venue for the June 7-9 event (Photo: NYCruise)
This year's Cruise Canada/New England Symposium has a fresh workshop format that will focus on the key themes of accommodating growth, building the summer season and crisis care training. Hosted in New York City by NYCruise, the June 7-9 symposium will use skilled facilitators and experts in a range of areas.

Results of the workshops will guide the Cruise Canada/New England Alliance in developing its strategic plan and setting a timeline for tactical goals, according to Amy Powers, 2016 CCNE chairman and director of CruiseMaine USA.

The Day 1 workshops, sponsored by Bermello Ajamil & Partners and facilitated by B&A's Mark Ittel, partner and svp, ports & maritime, will delve into 'how we can work together to build the region, promote to the cruise lines and accommodate growth, whether that's larger or smaller ships,' said Elizabeth Shearin, vp, director of cruise operations for the New York City Economic Development Corp./NYCruise.

First, cruise line and port executives, marketing and tourism personnel and regional stakeholders will participate in an interactive small groups discussion focusing on the key issues of consumer development and motivation, and revenue production for increased yields.

Next the groups will come together in a general session to present their key items to define specific programs or projects that can be advanced on a regional basis and jointly between the cruise lines and the CCNE regional partnership. Senior tourism and cruise line executives will be invited to critique the ideas and provide their input.

The morning on Day 2 of the symposium will feature an expanded one-on-one networking session to give cruise lines and ports the opportunity to discuss key business issues.

In the afternoon a workshop on human response crisis training will use actual cruise line cases to learn about how to interact with people in a crisis situation. The content will include topics such as assisting in extreme stress, assessing needs and connecting travelers to resources. The training will be provided by a facilitator from Aviem International.

In between the networking and care training will be an interactive Canada/New England trivia game led by René Trépanier, executive director of Cruise the Saint Lawrence.

Shearin said a symposium social highlight will be the June 8 evening reception sponsored by the Port of Montréal, the 2017 symposium host. The reception will take place at Pioneer Works, an installation space and incubator for artists, musicians, scientists and educators that's housed in a large warehouse in Red Hook, near the Brooklyn Cruise Terminal.

It is hoped the symposium will attract as much representation as possible from different disciplines throughout the cruise lines.

'With the global geopolitical situation, we're poised for growth. Collaboraton will be essential,' Powers said.

Information/registration is here.