Top experts to share insights at Seatrade Cruise Virtual: Health & Safety on April 12

International COVID-19 health and safety updates, COVID-19 prevention and response, health and safety in ship design and advancements in maritime training, are some of the key topics that feature at the one day focused virtual platform.

The packed programme will provide insights and experience from experts, both from within the cruise community and outside, about efforts to prepare for a return to normal operations.

Health & Safety update

The International COVID-19 Health and Safety Update, moderated by Donnie Brown, VP maritime policy, Cruise Lines International Association, will cover topics including approved vaccines and worldwide deployment status, current US, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and international regulations and policy. The discussion will also cover harmonizing variances in cruise line protocols and the outlook for returning to pre-pandemic operations.

Prevention and response

A COVID-19 Prevention panel moderated by John Sifling, principal, Broad Reach Maritime, will discuss change management, including health monitoring, capacity control, social distancing, sanitization and prevention best practices. It features DNV-GL’s Simon Mockler and Worldwide Care Solutions’ Carlos Torres de Navarra.

The COVID-19 Response session promises an informative panel of Royal Caribbean’s Dahlgren, Port Everglades' Glenn Wiltshire, Pharos Mission Critical Solutions' Rick Miller, Aspen Medical’s Glenn Keys and Marc Melville from Chukka Caribbean Adventures.

In another session Meyer Werft’s Gijs Streppel, Global Plasma Solutions’ Charlie Waddell and Stifling discuss practical challenges of fitting out ships to comply with new protocols and best practices and lessons learned

Maritime training

Advancements in maritime training sees Turrell moderate a panel including, MarEx Group’s Greg Trunnell, Wärtsilä Voyages Americas’ Neil Bennett and RINA’s Capt. Giorgio De Sciora, who will discuss challenges and solutions to achieving crew member operational readiness during rapid re-manning and the acceleration of digital online learning methods to meet increased training demands as cruise activity rebounds.

An interactive session asks participants to take a front row seat with the captain of a cruise vessel using a first of its kind virtual reality ship manoeuvring trainer, with full hydrodynamic, environmental and physical vessel modelling and visit the engineering spaces to see how virtual reality can be used for individual and team training applications.

Three targetted events

Seatrade Cruise Virtual: Health & Safety is the first of three one-day events from April 12-14; the other targeted events focus on on-board Guest Experience and Technology & Innovations.

Participants can choose to attend one, two or three of the day-long events depending on areas of focus. In addition to content-rich sessions, small group sessions and networking opportunities are further features of each day.

Registration is available here and the agenda can be accessed here.