Building on the success of 2020, which attracted over 30 sessions, 65 speakers and 3,000 delegates from more than 90 countries, the two week online IMarEST Annual Conference 2021 will feature multiple streams exploring many of the big topics across marine engineering, science & technology.
This year’s conference, taking place from 28 June – 9 July, will bring together industry experts to explore the following themes:
– Latest insights from the blue economy
– The human element – spotlight on seafarers
– Progress and pathways towards decarbonisation
– Digitalisation and innovation in the marine sector
– Environmental developments in marine activities
– Safeguarding the ocean environment
– Navigating towards net zero emissions
– New currents in naval and defence engineering
– Navigating ballast water management
– The UN Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development
The Ocean Cleanup is this year’s conference partner and the organisation will be unveiling its plans for the next iteration of their ocean cleanup technology: System 002.
Hanna Beumer, Brand Activation Manager at The Ocean Cleanup, comments: “The Ocean Cleanup is a non-profit organization that develops advanced technology to rid the world’s oceans of plastic. In 2018 we launched our first cleanup system into the Great Pacific Garbage Patch (GPGP); after a structural failure we brought it back ashore, nearly four months after we left San Francisco. In 2019, we returned with System 001/B which successfully proved the concept by catching plastic but faced challenges retaining some of it. Now, after 18 months of further development, we will return to the GPGP this year with the next ocean system, System 002. This is an important milestone because this system will not only be full-scale, but we will also unveil how we expect for the first time to extract large amounts of waste from the ocean. Our CEO and founder, Boyan Slat, together with two lead engineers, will present this development with a 90-minute deep dive into the new technology design. This year’s IMarEST conference will be the first time this is presented to the public.”
Gwynne Lewis, CEO of the IMarEST, comments: “We have an exceptional roster of speakers for this year’s Annual Conference, exploring many of the most pertinent subjects across marine engineering, science and technology. We will be utilising a mixture of live formats to provide delegates a flexible and unrivalled opportunity to participate in debates and learn from global industry leaders.”
