The IIMS India Branch Conference, entitled “Synergies in Marine Surveying” was held on 14-15 November 2014 at Kolkata and was hailed a great success by all who attended.
This third IIMS India Branch conference took place at the Hotel Sonnet, Salt Lake, Kolkata. The simple ‘no frills’ event was well attended by 60 delegates at the cosy and comfortable venue of the Emerald Hall at Hotel Sonnet. Overseas delegates and speakers were represented too with two delegates from the UK, four from UAE, three from Bangladesh, one from Singapore and one from China. The rest came from the Kolkata area as well as hinterland cities of India.
The conference theme was aptly echoed throughout the two days of the event not just by theme title on backdrops and mention of the word Synergy in the papers that were presented, but by actual synergizing between the attending delegates both from within the membership as well as those who are not members.
The IIMS Regional Director for India, Mr Milind Tambe, welcomed the delegates and also read out an address on behalf of the IIMS’ Chief Executive Officer, Mr Mike Schwarz, who could not attend the Conference on this occasion
The IIMS India Branch Conference was formally inaugurated by Capt S C Mandal the Principal Officer MMD, Kolkata. He made apt references to incidences and success stories in the maritime industry where Synergies were harnessed. He also raised a thought provoking question at the end of his address asking why there is no representation from the other streams of the Surveyors at the IMO as an NGO in the consultative status, apart from IACS.
This was then followed by 16 papers and one interactive session over the two days. One of the notable and much debated papers wwas presented by Capt Shailesh Karmarkar of IRS who spoke on the ‘Carriage of Hazardous Bulk Cargoes’, which invited a lively discussion during the Q&A session on various aspects related to loading of iron ore fines and related issues in India, with Capt Karmarkar and Capt Ruchin Dayal both giving some very vital inputs.
A much more detailed overview of the conference with supporting photos can be found in the December issue of The Report magazine, which is published on 17 December 2014.