Lots of seminars and meetings during intensive Almedalen Week

About 30 seminars, two mingles and three ministerial visits. The Maritime Meeting Place during the Almedalen Week gave plenty of opportunities for increased knowledge, experience sharing and networking.

- We are many players who merge under the umbrella the Maritime Meeting Place and together we create a big impact. Almedalen is an important arena for discussions and networking, both with former acquaintances and new actors. The seminars attract people interested in the issues and creates interesting discussions, Åsa Burman, director Lighthouse, says.

The Maritime Meeting Place is organized by the Maritime Forum, Skärgårdsredarna, Swedish Shipowners' Association, Lighthouse, Swedish Shipbroker Association, Swedish Marine Technology Forum (SMTF) and Ports of Sweden. The group also arranged four joint seminars under the main theme of competitive maritime industries.

• Maritime Environmental Battle: How do regions and municipalities promote environmentally-friendly maritime companies?
• Without export, no wealth - without shipping, no export
• Does environmental ambition collude  with waterways passenger transports?
• Swedish sea food for sustainable blue growth

Electricity and batteries
In addition to the four joint seminars, Lighthouse also hosted a seminar entitled "The world's first fossil-free country - Water and Electricity, What Can Go Wrong?" (Youtube). The seminar discussed if and how electric propulsion could help Sweden to become the world's first fossil-free country. The speakers were; Bo Normark, Senior Strategic Adviser to NorthVolt, Per Wassén, CEO of PowerCell, Maria Grahn, Researcher at Chalmers, Per Wimby, Project Manager at Stena Teknik and Michael Guldmann Petersen, SVP Route Management & Operations on Scandlines.

"There is a positive ongoing discussions about electrification and, from the technology point of view, there were clear signs that the prices of batteries will go down," says Åsa Burman.

The seminar aimed to provide a roadmap for the electrification of shipping and Lighthouse will re-raise the subject on a full day seminar with the Maritima cluster in West Sweden, August 30.

Lighthouse livestreamad 17 of the seminars and they can also be seen afterwards .

- Sharing knowledge is important for us and by livestreaming our seminars we give everyone the opportunity to follow the discussions at the Maritime Meeting Place. The ambition is to further develop this and livestrean all the seminars next year, Andreas Kron, communications manager at Lighthouse, says.

Large crowd and big ship
The seminar about the conflict at APM Terminals in Gothenburg Port gained a lot of interest. All seats where occupied and people had to stand outside the tent to follow the seminar. The broadcast from the seminar has been seen close to 200 times. Swedish paper Sjöfartstidningen writes (in Swedish) about the seminar: http://www.sjofartstidningen.se/hamnkonflikten-lockade-storpublik/

A lot of interest was also pointed towrads Terntank's LNG-powered vessel M/T Tern Ocean. The ship sailed to Visby and during 24 hours, together with Preem, gave guided tours on board, while several seminars organised Zero Vision Tool took place at the Maritime Meeting Place. Read more at Sjöfartstidningen here: http://www.sjofartstidningen.se/hallbart-i-almedalen/

Many also took the chance to compete in the maritime quiz. A knowledge competition aimed at informing and increasing interest in the maritime sector. In the prize pool there were nice cruises from Stena Line and Viking Line and the exclusive first prize consisted of a trip to Luleå and overnight stay at an icebreaker.

Participating politicians
A large number of people visited the Maritime Meeting Place and listing everyone is difficult, but below, the politicians who participated :

• Anna Johansson (S) infrastrukturminister
• Ylva Johansson (S) arbetsmarknads- och etableringsminister
• Anna Ekström, (S) Gymnasie- och kunskapslyftsminister
• Karin Svensson Smith (MP), Ordförande Trafikutskottet, Sveriges Riksdag
• Jessica Rosencrantz (M), Vice ordförande i riksdagens trafikutskott
• Hans Rothenberg (M), Riksdagsledamot, Näringsutskottet,
• Jennie Nilsson (S), Riksdagsledamot, Ordf. Näringsutskottet,
• Teres Lindberg (S), Riksdagsledamot, Trafikutskottet,
• Anders Åkesson (C), Riksdagsledamot, Trafikutskottet
• Boriana Åberg (M), Riksdagsledamot, Trafikutskottet
• Sten Bergheden (M), Riksdagsledamot, Trafikutskottet
• Kristina Jonäng (C), Ordf. Miljönämnden, Västra Götalandsregionen
• Ilmar Reepalu (S), Ledamot Kommunfullmäktige & Kommunförbundet Skåne, Malmö Stad
• Kristoffer Tamsons (M), Trafiklandstingsråd, Stockholms läns landsting
• Gustav Hemming (C), Miljö-, skärgårds- och regionplanelandstingsråd, Stockholms läns landsting
• Rune Backlund (C), Regionråd
• Malin Karlsson (MP), Trafikpolitisk talesperson, Stockholms läns landsting
• Carina Gullberg (S), Kommunalråd, Gullspångs kommun
• Johan Abrahamsson (M), Ordf. Kommunstyrelsen, Mariestads kommun & Vänersamarbetet
• Linnéa Engström (MP), EU-parlamentariker, Fiskeutskottet
• Lena Ek (C), Ordf Södra Skogsägarna, Förtroenderådet i Stiftelsen Hållbara Hav

Some tweets during the week