Another week, another event. It really is the season for this kind of thing. Maritime Innovation Week is a three day event organised by the Port of Tyne, with events in London and the North East. It’s a bit like Northumbrian Water’s Innovation Festival, though it all takes place indoors. Thank goodness as it was a very cold week.
I can’t quite remember if I had ever been to the event before as the dates hadn’t worked but I am really glad I made it this time. Spending a whole day in the presence of innovation experts and regional influencers was a good use of my time.
Dr Jo North was a great host and there were many interesting speakers and panels. Ports are really exciting places (95% of the world’s trade passes through them). I’ve always loved logistics since my first ever job and I was fascinated to hear of their 5G hub, as well as the development of green marine corridors.
Their onsite 5G network is being used to manage the flow of goods around the site and I was particularly impressed how they were using AI to detect damaged containers before they get into the system, saving wasted journeys and money.
I also learned a lot about the use of green fuel at sea. Work is underway to look at methanol and hydrogen along with other biofuels. What I never realised, even though it’s obvious in hindsight, is that, before a ship can sail, it must have a guaranteed source of fuel at the arrival port. Hence the corridors, without the correct facilities at the endpoints there is no corridor. The speaker also talked about the availability of onshore electricity, which would allow ships to switch off their engines while in port. Net zero is such a huge challenge and opportunity and it is great to see the Port of Tyne leading the way.
At the start of her presentation on green corridors, the speaker said that if shipping was a country, it would be the 6th biggest in the world, just after Germany. I had to smile as this is the way I have started many of my presentations, with cyber being the 3rd biggest.
I’ve only touched on the event and there is so much more to talk about, including that Dr Jo gave a nice shout out for CyberNorth and invited us to be a part of their innovation network. I need to get my head around what this means but based upon the day, you can count us in.
Thoughts from a Guerrilla Worker 