On the agenda
Talent shortage · Pay & conditions at sea · Diversity & inclusion · Automation and the crew · Training & academies · Mental health at sea
Programme
11:00
Live roundtable
session
“People are our greatest asset.” Shipping has said this for fifty years. Meanwhile officers are leaving, cadet berths are shrinking, and the fuels of 2030 will be handled by crews trained for 1995.
Mare Forum brings together owners, managers, charterers, insurers, unions — and a Master calling in from a ship at sea — to answer one question without the usual comfort: who is actually paying to keep people in this industry?
No slides. No sales pitches. Bring your numbers.
• “Talent shortage”: is it a recruitment problem, a retention problem, or a fundamental failure to make seafaring a credible 21st-century career?
• What is the sense and what is the nonsense about seafaring and talent in shipping?
• Many talk about “maritime heritage” — but does talent actually care about heritage, or only about pay, lifestyle and prestige?
• There is no seafarer shortage. Is there a shortage of owners willing to pay for seafarers?
• Does this industry spend more on ammonia feasibility studies than on training the people who will handle ammonia?
• Do European maritime industries have an actual plan to compete for talent, or just nostalgia and a job fair?
• Diversity: is the industry pursuing it because it’s right, or because an all-male, mono-national officer corps is simply bad for business — and if you can’t answer that cleanly, what does that tell you?
• Is diversity in this industry more photograph than policy?
• Automation: cutting crews, solving the shortage, or killing the experience that keeps ships safe?
• Are academies training officers for real ships, or for museum pieces?
• Who is actually going to run the ships of tomorrow?
• Mental health at sea: real change, or reputation management that stops short of structural change?
• Your top graduate has offers from Google, Goldman Sachs and a bulk carrier. Can you sell them shipping — in one sentence?
• What does the next generation actually want — and is anyone listening?
• Pay, purpose or prestige: what is the real trade young talent is making?
• If shipping can’t answer that, why would they ever choose it?
Phrixos Papachristidis
Antonios Faraklas, Dan Jespersen, Sinem Sen, Daniel Jones, Isabel Grimpe
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Speakers & panel
Panelist
Isabel Grimpe
Managing Director
Grimpe RelationShip Management GmbH
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Panelist
Sinem Sen
Sales Manager, Alphaliner EMEA
Signal Ocean
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Panelist
Dan Jespersen
Founder
7C Shipping Ltd.
Managing Director
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Panelist
Antonios Faraklas
Managing Director
Chartworld Shipping Corporation
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Moderator
Phrixos Papachristidis
Chief Executive Officer
Hellespont Group
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8 October 2026
Online webinar
Virtual
Early bird
Best available rate — applied automatically
Free →
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