Introduction
Posidonia fair was held in Metropolitan Expo from Monday 6/06/16 up to Friday 10/06/16. Representatives of the committee as well as members of the UoS SNAME Student Section collaborated with NTUA and TEI of Athens SNAME Student Sections and offered their assistance for the set up and operation of SNAME stand which was located at Hall 2 stand 2,435/5.
Posidonia fair is one of the biggest fairs of marine industry. It is held every two years in Athens, Greece. It provides the essential place for serious business at the largest gathering in the shipping calendar. Its basic aim is to promote and bring together the companies from all over the shipping world.
This year, approximately, 22,000 shipping industry professionals visited the Expo a number increased by 14% compared to 2014 Posidonia. Totally, 1,800 exhibitors from 90 countries were in Athens that week and it’s predicted that this number will increase for the following expedition which will be held between 4- 8 June 2018.
The SNAME booth had many visitors as well. A roughly estimated number of visitors per day is 40- 50. Many students studying Naval Architecture, Maritime studies etc. visited our booth in order to get information about SNAME and learn what the benefits are of being member of an international professional society. Moreover, many professionals visited us in order to upgrade their membership, the President who was there the whole week.
Sunday 05/06
Members of our student section alongside with other volunteers from the Greek student sections mentioned above helped with the set-up of SNAME stand.
Monday 06/06
Monday was the first day of Posidonia. One representative from each student section had to be present in order to represent their University and meet Mr. Joe Comer the President of SNAME and Mr. Erik Seither the Executive Director of SNAME. Moreover, the opening ceremony took place and only two members from each stand could attend it, so Mr. Joe and Erik attended it. Later on, the Greek Prime Minister Mr. Tsipras passed by our stand in order to greet us, accompanied by the newly elected U.S. ambassador.
Tuesday 07/06
As it was the first day which the exhibition was open to public, more volunteers were needed. Our representatives and members volunteered in different three shifts (10.00-13.00, 13.00- 16.00 & 16.00- 19.00). . We were asked to be at SNAME stand at least one quarter before our shift in order to be well informed about our role by Ms Sofia Iliogrammenou.
Wednesday 08/06
During this day the instructions given the day before were once again followed and everything run smoothly. The representatives and members of the committee who did not have shift during 11.00-13.00 attended the seminar hosted by the University of Strathclyde. Also a few members of our committee attended the mentoring program with Mr. Harilaos Petrakakos.
Thursday 09/06
The shifts of our members were successfully completed for one more day. Members and representatives of our society attended the “Mentor for a Day” program with Mr. Konstantinos Maounis and Mr. Evangelos Liadis.
Friday 10/06
The last day of Posidonia was once again successfully completed with the members of our society completing their shifts. Help was also offered for the setting down of the booth.
Overview
Posidonia 2016 was a great opportunity for our society to improve its public relations and networking. Good collaboration with all of the SNAME members was attained and last but not least the base was set for future collaboration with the NTUA and TEI of Athens SNAME Student Sections. We met many professionals who were members of SNAME like Dr. John Kokarakis Chairman of the Greek Section who is also Technology & Business Development Director of Marine & Offshore Division in Bureau Veritas, the French Classification Society. We had the pleasure to meet many people working in other Classification Societies such as ABS, Lloyd’s Register etc.
Paraskevi Kapsampeli (Treasurer) & Nikoletta Vekri (Communications Officer)