30 August 2009

Looking Forward to the BMEA Conference Day 2009, Sponsored By Victron Energy

The prestigious 2009 British Marine Electronics Association Conference will be taking place on Wednesday, October 21st, 2009 at the Novotel Hotel in Southampton. The annual event provides an opportunity for all sides of the marine industry to get together not only to discuss topics of mutual interest but also to create and build beneficial business relationships.

Introduced by Paul Holland, BMEA Chairman, the Conference will include a number of presentations by distinguished speakers. Among the subjects that will be covered are; ‘Galileo and other related e-navigation subjects’ by Dr Charles Dixon, Head of Future Programmes Navigation ANF2, Earth Observation, Navigation & Science, EADS Astrium; ‘Finance Today’ by Tim Gallego from Poundbury Wealth Management; ‘Hybrid Power’ by Ken Wittamore from Triskel Marine Ltd and Johannes Boonstra from Conference sponsors Victron Energy.

This year’s Conference will be a special occasion as the BMEA will be welcoming its counterpart from North America, the National Marine Electronic Association (NMEA). David Hayden, President of NMEA will be talking about, ‘the benefits of trained engineers to the boat owner, the manufacturer and the decrease in warranty work’. Following the formal Conference day, Steve Spitzer, Technical Director & Dave Morschhauser, Assistant Technical Director of NMEA will give a presentation on NMEA 2000 with a ‘hands-on’ ‘Connect Fest’ demonstration of NMEA 2000 interfacing

After a full day of conferencing and the brief Annual General Meeting, there will be the Annual Dinner, the day ending with the announcement of three major awards:

• BMEA Waterside Dealer of the Year Award sponsored by Garmin UK Ltd
• BMEA Product of the Year Award sponsored by Boating Business
• BMEA Newly Certificated Technician of the Year Award sponsored by Raymarine plc

Ian Lockyer (BMEA Marketing) said, ’Our customers will again have the opportunity to choose the industry’s dealer and product of the year by simply going to http://www.bmea.org/bmea-dealer-and-product-of-the-year/ and voting.’ The ‘BMEA Newly Certificated Technician of the Year Award’ will be chosen from a shortlist of newly certificated engineers across the industry. A panel of industry experts will choose the winner. Ian went on to say that, ’this year’s Conference has a fantastic range of speakers with some really interesting subject to talk about. The Association is moving forward with a lot of interesting developments including revitalising their training schemes with the NMEA. It is also great that this year we have the New Technician of the Year Award. Recognising new technicians is very important as they are the future of our industry.’

The Conference is open to all in the marine industry – and is free for up to 2 delegates from BMEA member companies; additional delegates, and non-BMEA members will be charged £35 per person – to include entrance to all the presentations, coffee, lunch and dinner.

Any non-BMEA member interested in attending should contact Tony Johns, Secretary of the BMEA by email secretary@bmea.org.

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