Joanna Palmer, Head of Marketing & Operations for Superyacht Technology Network, provides her review, from the inside, with so much to say this will be a series of posts!  This is just the pre event and the first morning …….

Coming down with Covid in October 2021 meant that I couldn’t attend the first Show and Conference at the World Trade Centre in Barcelona.  So, this year, after organising it all blindly, I was visiting a space that some of you had already seen, but I had not.  Sleepless nights regarding VIPs and space planning disappeared in a flash as soon as we arrived at the WTC the day before to ensure that everything was set up.  The space was perfect for creating a great flow and ensured that all exhibitors had good visibility.

A CMC Marine drinks event at Opium Beach Club was a great opener to the event and allowed sponsors, exhibitors and VIPs to meet each other in a social environment which set the paving for a friendly, collaborative and encouraging feel to the entire conference.

Massive thanks must be mentioned to our main speakers, Speedcast were our Conference Partner, Crestron were the Innovation Lab Partner and Samsung were our Technology Partner. 

 Headline Sponsors were YotStore, VBH, Peplink, Kaleidescape, Savage Lighting, Excelerate, SEA.AI, Mimo (in association with Celeway and Poyting) and Ultra Horizon.

Tuesday 11th October 2022 – The morning session

Tuesday morning started with an introduction from Jack Robinson, followed by Philipp Von Armin from Lurssen Yachts, sharing information about the innovative fuel cell technology that is onboard Lurssen Yachts.  He said, “the industry is in great growth, insights from SYBAss at MYS said all was very positive, the number of billionaires is increasing”. 

Next to the stage was Jereon van den Hurk from VBH, discussing the paradox of custom v commodity in the superyacht industry.  Covering the importance of design integration and the importance of system integrators over the last few decades.  Discussing VBH’s invisible technology he said “the best AVIT solutions are invisible when not in use, yet instantly available upon demand”.

Tommy Lexen from Immersive International was next to the stage discussing how the evolution of smart art, augmented spaces and responsive interior design is now the expectation and the opportunity to really explore what that means for the superyacht industry.

The coffee break sponsored by ST Engineering allowed people to stretch their legs and discuss what they had learnt in the first session.  The vibe was alive with buyers and sellers discussing together how to implement what they had learnt. 

The late morning session began with Jamie from Studio8 talking about XR technologies and he proposed metaverse, “never before could you bring an idea to life in such vivid detail” he said when discussing augmented reality, and also astounded us that the XR growth was valued at 12 billion US$ by Goldman Sachs.

Philip Gude then came to the stage (from GUDE) to talk to us about the next level of managed services in superyachts.  He discussed the issues that ETOs have and how you can assist to solve the problem in seconds.

 The next person to the stage was the first of our Women In Tech, Anu Peppio from VTT Senseway Giving us the confidence to not do what we always do, change is inevitable, so how do we keep up?  Anu was keen to encourage diversity within superyacht businesses, not just by gender, but by religion, age, cultural background, race and orientation.  As a person with a Captain’s licence, she sailed for 15 years she went from a very male-dominated world surrounded by sailors, she then moved to a land-based position at Rolls Royce to an engineering field, working with nearly all male engineers.

Feargus Bryan took to the stage and discussed the Superyacht Technology Steering Council.  This is created along with our very own Jack Robinson, more information will be available soon which we will share with our network.  He said we have a “unique opportunity that we have as designers, shipyards, as operators, as OEMs, we have the opportunity to create and innovate”.

The final speaker of the morning was Celeste Endrino-Cowley from OneWeb discussing how OneWeb can provide low-Earth orbit connectivity to superyachts.

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