Replay: Safety Seminar 2023

Returning after a four-year absence, IMCA’s in-person Safety Seminar brought together members to explore the current safety issues in the offshore sector, notably the challenges in attracting and retaining the right people.

Attendees at the event in Amsterdam on Tuesday 6 June 2023 heard from Iain Grainger, CEO of IMCA, who shared the latest industry safety statistics and posed the room the collaborative challenge of finding the ways to further drive down incidents.

With a busy and informative programme of subject matter experts, inspirational best-practice, and thought-provoking presentations, the Seminar brought together HSSE and organisational leaders from across the offshore sector.

Attendees heard from Ossur Jarleivson Hilduberg of the Danish Maritime Accident Investigation Board who explored the sinking of the Concordia cruise ship. Replaying the audio from the bridge, he highlighted the “normality” of the situation – until it was too late.

Gavin Smith of Caledonia Competence and chair of IMCA’s Competence and Training Committee, outlined the work IMCA is undertaking and tools available to Members in this area.

After coffee, communication was explored with Michael Anderson of Equinor performing an entertaining role play on the importance of communication in onboarding, Ben Neal shared some of the AI tools P&O Maritime Logistics has developed to support multi-lingual onboarding, and Darren Male shared how Fugro are overcoming systemic barriers to women in the offshore workplace.

Following lunch there was a short and productive Q&A session with the IMCA CEO Iain Grainger, Darren Male (Chair HSS Committee, Gavin Smith (Chair C&T) committee, and other members of the HSSE committee, which covered such questions as IMCA’s direction and key areas of focus in the coming years, particularly for safety.

After this, Bionda van Roosendaal shared how Heerema Marine Contractors has a duty of care for sub-contractors, while Debbi Garreffa of MMA Offshore explored the importance of Leadership and Engagement.

The final sessions saw Eric Annard share Subsea7’s focus on predictable performance and the importance of leadership to that, while Louize Dan shared more detail on TechnipFMC’s inspirational FOCOS process.

The day ended with the presentation of the IMCA Awards with ADNOC’s Smart Vessels project and MMA Offshore’s Target 365 Safety programme jointly winning the Safety Award. Heerema’s project to reduce noise pollution in piling operations was recognised in the Environmental Sustainability category.

Nick Hough, Safety and Security consultant at IMCA said: “A huge thank you to everyone who took time out of their working week to discuss safety with their peers. Events like these are vital to sharing best-practice and seeing how other organisations are tackling commonly faced issues.

“The interaction from a fully engaged and enthusiastic room was welcome and will positively feed into the work programme of IMCA’s HSS Committee.”

“I’d also like to take this opportunity to thank the Committee for curating an engaging programme, and to extend our thanks to sponsors Smart Dive for their support of the event.”