Highlights from the Athens Seagull User Forum Oct 13.
Seagull presented their latest training titles and approved onboard courses at their annual User Forum in Athens
The Greek Shipping community showed up in force with more than one hundred and twenty participants at the annual Seagull User Forum. As part of this forum Seagull welcomed NewsLink as a valued co-host. The forum was held in the evening of October 13th at the Athenaeum Intercontinental Hotel, Athens and was a welcomed social occasion which included cocktails and buffet. The Seagull forums have been designed for the local shipping community to network and share their experiences with colleagues and friends. The Seagull forums are open to all and are held in several maritime centres each year such as Singapore, Cyprus, Bergen, London, and of course, Athens.
For the benefit of all, two distinguished guest speakers presented their company’s first hand experiences using the Seagull Training System and the appreciation of crews to have NewsLink’s daily newspaper and Infotainment DVD onboard.
The Seagull forum itself began with a welcome and introduction by Mr. Ioannis Athanasopoulos, Managing Director of the Seagull-NewsLink office in Piraeus and the evening’s host. Mr Athanasopoulos gave an encouraging update of both company’s increasing presence worldwide. Seagull now has 100% dedicated offices in Piraeus, Japan, Singapore, Germany, Norway, UK, Americas and Poland.
The guest presentations began with a Shipping KPI Seminar given by Capt. Kuba Szymanski, Secretary General at InterManager. He introduced the Shipping KPI initiative which has made significant advances toward a global shipping industry standard for defining, measuring and reporting information on operational crew performance, or KPI’s / “Key Performance Indicators”. Capt. Szymanski and George Hoyt, chairman of the InterManager KPI Committee demonstrated how the InterManager Shipping KPI project works closely with BIMCO, INTERCARGO, INTERTANKO, shipping companies and other industry organizations for this mutually beneficial project.
Mr. Roger Ringstad, Managing Director of Seagull AS whose headquarters are in Horten, Norway gave the forum a concise overview of the many new and ongoing training initiatives taking place at Seagull and explained that they were not confined to the highly important , regularly released, new CBT “computer based training” titles but also to how training development is evolving and increasingly focused on the efficient use of competence assessment tools, such as the Competence and Knowledge Assessment tools
that are available in the Seagull Training System, and how they play
a critical part in the assessment and efficient ranking of seafarers.
Mr Ringstad also gave an overview of the ongoing success of Seagull delivering e-TOTS / “electronic Tanker Officer Training Standard” that meets INTERTANKO’s requirement to achieve a paper-free training support tool for TOTS.
Seagull’s e-TOTS allow crew members to take a more flexible approach to learning. Seagull has a formal agreement with INTERTANKO to provide E-TOTS.
Mr. Ringstad stated, “our goal is to build the most comprehensive suite of software to help companies address their specific training and compliance challenges, and to improve seafarer competence and overall company performance. We continuously develop new products and thoroughly revise existing products to address a changing legislative environment” added Mr. Ringstad. This was followed by an open discussion among participants as to what is required now and future training needs.
A new addition to the Seagull Team is Captain Bjarke Jakobsen. He joined Seagull in early 2010 and has taken up the strategically important position of Director of Training Content. Captain Jakobsen spoke of the unique value and direct cost savings benefits of completing STCW and IMO required training while onboard thus removing the extended time needed for a seafarer to be in a classroom ashore and the additional costs of travel and
accomodation for training. By making the ship a classroom, the seafarer is not only better trained using the equipment of the ship, but also happier because of not having to spend valuable shore / vacation time away from their families.
Seagull were pleased to welcome two of their valued “Customer” guest speakers who generously shared their experiences with the forum about using Seagull and its products and to submit themselves to a full question and answer session.
The first of these presentations was made by Capt. Jens Lindhè, Operations Manager, Maran Gas Maritime Inc. who shared his specific experience of implementing the Seagull Training System across their entire fleet and the positive experience they had with Seagull’s commitment to service.
The second of these speakers, Mr. Antonis Liappis, Crew Manager, Millenia Maritime Inc. presented a look into the crew’s experience with training challenges for which recently they decided to implement Seagull Training System and C.E.S. (Crew Evaluation System) as well as how NewsLink helps maintain a happier and better crew experience.
Seagull would like to acknowledge and thank the final guest speaker Captain Dani Appave, Senior Maritime Specialist, ILO Sectoral Activities Branch, for his insightful and extremely well received overview of the reason behind, and benefits of, MLC 2006.
The evening was concluded with Mr. George Hoyt, Founder of Newslink Serviceswho referred to Crew shortage, MLC and KPI Project, NewsLink’s contribution to the training & welfare of Seafarers and presented an update on NewsLink’s Infotainment DVD Magazine whichincludes industry leader interviews, entertainment, puzzles, games and information. He told the forum that the Headline Media Group had merged with NewsLink Services giving more options for crew welfare applications such as Hollywood and Bollywood cinema films as well as health & safety, books, sports and news programmes. Mr. Hoyt introduced Mr. Rob Parkin, Sales Manager, Headland Media to the audience.
For more information about Seagull products and services please visit our web site at www.seagull.no
