ISPO 2023 - The annual conference for pilots

Registration for ISPO 2023 will be open from Wednesday 28 June. ISPO – the International Standard for Pilotage Organizations – annual conference for pilots and port-related organizations around the world – will take place this year in Amsterdam on 11/12 October. The theme of this year’s conference is Crisis Management.

Crisis Management

Every day, commercial ships sail in and out of ports around the world – around 90% of world trade goes by sea. The risk of shipping accidents is greatest in port approaches and pilotage area. One of the principal measures to mitigate this risk is for ships to use the services of a marine pilot.

A marine pilot is a local expert in maneuvering ships in areas with high shipping traffic. Partly because of this, the number of shipping accidents, near misses and incidents is small. Nevertheless, incidents occur occasionally, and the consequences of such incidents can be significant for the ship, the port, the pilot organization and the environment.

Precisely because major incidents occur so rarely, pilot organizations must be well prepared.

The ISPO conference focuses on the consequences of a serious incident in pilotage waters. After an incident, all organizations involved must deal with a number of agencies- port state, flag state, insurers to name but a few. How does the pilot organization deal with the press? How are affected pilots assisted to get back to work? And what lessons can be learned to minimize the likelihood of recurrence?

At ISPO 2023, all these topics will be discussed extensively. Speakers will be announced in July.