Nor-Shipping is partnering with business platform SeaFocus in an agreement aimed at connecting maritime companies with talented students. The ‘associate’ partnership will see SeaFocus hold the Finals of its established Intelligence Hunt initiative in Nor-Shipping’s exhibition Hall B throughout Friday 7 June, the final day of activities for ‘Your Arena for Ocean Solutions’ 2019.
SeaFocus is an international organization, based in Finland, which works to highlight, discuss and enable opportunities within maritime. Its Intelligence Hunt project sees businesses submit industry case studies and scenarios for teams of international students to address with innovative solutions. The culmination of this ten-week process is a live final where students present breakthrough ideas, a jury assesses them, and awards are given.
For Nor-Shipping 2019’s collaboration the theme of the event is ‘Blue Economy – the maritime industry and responsible growth’.
“This initiative is a direct response to the feedback we received from our customers at Nor-Shipping 2017,” explains Nor-Shipping’s Sofia Fürstenberg Stott. “Our exhibitors and visitors see Nor-Shipping as the ideal arena to meet prospective and current partners, suppliers and clients. However, we found there was a strong desire to engage more with the next generation of industry talent – to see, meet and help prime the potential of young people that may be interested in making their mark in maritime. As such, SeaFocus is the perfect fit.”
Accessing opportunity
The Intelligence Hunt will see up to 60 students competing for awards, showcasing skills in, amongst other areas, digital solutions, artificial intelligence and automation to deliver solutions for the companies submitting case scenarios. The students will receive mentoring, real life business experience and practical training, while companies will benefit from new ways of working, profiling and innovative solutions. Both parties establish invaluable connections and access to talent and employment pools.
“It’s a win-win for everyone involved, and for our visitors,” says Fürstenberg Stott, “who will be able to gain inspiration from these talented students and ideas about how to solve the recruitment challenge facing all those within the maritime and ocean industries.”
Embracing the challenge
“Furthermore, we hope the vital ‘Blue Economy’ theme – which supports our focus in Hall A – will help address the conundrum of how we can accelerate business development in the ocean space while safeguarding the environment and ensuring sustainable resource use. This is an issue we all need to address and it’ll be exciting to see how these ‘fresh minds’ tackle the enormous challenge.”
Ulla Keino, the founder and CEO of SeaFocus, adds: “Nor-Shipping provides an ideal platform for the Intelligence Hunt, ensuring our talented students will impress, inspire and interact with an audience of key maritime decision makers from around the world. This is an initiative that not only provides an invaluable recruitment and talent spotting stage, but also a fertile breeding ground for ‘outside the box’ ideas. It’ll be fascinating to see the outcome of this partnership and we can’t wait to start working in Norway to expand our reach and help support both the current industry and its future leaders.”
Nor-Shipping Director Per Martin Tanggaard will launch the collaboration with a trip to Finland this November, during which he’ll engage with SeaFocus stakeholders to explain and publicise the Blue Economy theme, alongside Nor-Shipping’s wider mission to support and enable sustainable commercial success in the ocean.
Activity for everyone
Nor-Shipping takes place in Oslo and Lillestrøm, Norway, from 04 to 07 June 2019. It will welcome around 1000 exhibiting companies and over 30,000 visitors, with a diverse programme of business, social and networking activity.
Hall A’s Blue Economy focus aims to attract a wide array of participants, including business cluster organisations, start-ups, venture capitalists and companies from segments including digital and data innovation, smart logistics, alternative fuels, recycling, cyber security, and cross industry collaboration, amongst others.
