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Holland America Group President Jan Swartz headlining Seatrade Cruise Virtual: Tech & Innovation

Jan Swartz, group president, Holland America Group, is headlining Seatrade Cruise Virtual: Tech & Innovation taking place on April 14 paving the way for a full day of expert insight from cruise lines, shipyards, suppliers and service providers.

Mary Bond, Editor in Chief

April 1, 2021

2 Min Read
Credit: Seatrade Cruise News

To open the day, Swartz will share with Ian Richardson, CEO, theICEway and Seatrade Cruise Global tech ambassador, how she sees technology continuing to play an instrumental role to get cruising back in operation safely. 

Jay Schneider and Luca Pronzati

Following on Jay Schneider, chief product innovation officer at Royal Caribbean Group, and Luca Pronzati, chief business innovation officer, MSC Cruises, are among cruise line panelists and suppliers lined up to discuss latest contact tracing technologies and wearables how they are providing ways to employ COVID contact tracing.

Return to service technologies

Daniele Buonaiuto, chief technology officer, MSC Cruises; Daniel Hanratty, IT delivery manager, Marella Cruises and TUI River Cruises; and Dimple Jethani, ‎CIO & SVP IT operations and governance, Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings; then discuss how different lines are approaching return to service technologies including the management of passenger health records and vaccination certifications, the use of telehealth and the use of cameras to measure passenger density and traffic flow in public areas such as dining spaces. 

IT investments

In a session Navigating the Future of Fleet IT Infrastructure Investments, Pierre-Laurent Jouannet, deputy CIO infrastructure & production, Ponant; Georgios Mortakis, VP enterprise technical operations & CISO, IT security & compliance, Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings; and John Maya, VP operational excellence Royal Caribbean Group, will discuss investments lines plan to make over the next 12-24 months and how they are approaching procurement around strategic IT investments.

David Candib, VP global port & destination development, Carnival Corp. & plc; Lars Kruse, sales manager, Meyer Werft; and Olga Piqueras, managing director, Intercruises Shoreside & Port Services, join a panel looking at how shipbuilding changed in the pandemic, what technologies ports are investing in and how technology will play a role in pre-screening passengers prior to their port arrival, among a wide range of topics.

The full agenda can be accessed here

Three targeted events

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

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.

About the Author

Mary Bond

Editor in Chief

Mary Bond is Group Director, Seatrade Cruise a division within Informa Markets and responsible for the Seatrade portfolio of global cruise events, print and online cruise publishing.

Mary is also the publisher and editor-in-chief of Seatrade Cruise News and Seatrade Cruise Review magazine.

Mary has worked in the shipping industry for 39 years, first for Lloyd’s Register of Shipping before joining Seatrade’s editorial team in 1985.

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