This year the 20th edition of the IALA Conference was held between May 27th and June 3rd at the Windsor Convention & Expo Center in Rio de Janeiro (Brazil) under the motto “Marine Aids to Navigation Innovation for a Sustainable Future”, an international event that takes place every four years on a different continent and whose objective is to share the expertise and technical knowledge of the major stakeholders of the sector in order to discuss and plan new approaches for the future of Aids to Navigation.
MSM participated this year as Official Conference Sponsor, becoming actively involved both in the conferences scheduled for the event, as well as in the industrial exhibition, where we were present in a 36m2 stand dedicated to the different divisions of the company: AtoN, MSM Ocean, MSM Offshore, and the training platform MSM Academy.
In this new edition, MSM prepared several surprises at the stand, and one of the proposals that most attracted the attention of visitors to our stand was the optical measurement room, a place where Marina Baño, head of the department of MSM optics, showed the process and technology used by our company to measure the light intensity of our lanterns and verify that they strictly comply with the IALA Recommendations. Another highlight was the presentation of a beacons edition specially designed for the IALA Conference in Rio de Janeiro: our MBR300R rotating beacon, the MEL250L sector leading light and the MBL500LD marine LED lantern, which were decorated with multicolour geometric designs.
The MSM divisions presented their latest developments: MSM Offshore revealed the new MBL15-Ex beacon model with a range of 15 NM for marking Oil & Gas offshore platforms; and MSM Ocean presented the new MTW1 tide gauge, a device that combines all functional features in the measurement of water bodies levels.
On the other hand, MSM team was sharing its technical expertise through seminars and conferences. Antonio Martínez Tanco, MSM CEO, was speaking about Wireless Technology in AtoN in a session dedicated to Communications and Cybersecurity; and Mónica Herrero, MSM Commercial Vice President MSM, gave a seminar focused on AtoN Technician Skills Development and offered a conference dedicated to the use of Metocean data to improve safety of navigation. Three interventions that received wide attention and whose purpose was to offer some technological keys and share actions that promote the safety of navigation.
Another great news for our team was the MSM election to be part of the Industrial Members Group (IMG, formerly known as IMC) to represent IALA’s industrial members. We receive this position with enthusiasm to support IALA and its industry members in their work.
Certainly, we can proudly state that this 20th IALA Conference has been a complete success and a great opportunity to meet again with our collaborators and the maritime community in general in a place where we have been able to learn about the latest developments in the sector and contribute with our know-how, as well as keep on working to develop, improve and make the future of maritime safety more sustainable.
See you in India in 4 years!
