The number of overall participants in this year’s Posidonia, including exhibitors, visitors and press, exceeded the 40,000 mark, as some 29,000 visitors from 103 countries and territories filled the exhibition and conference rooms to the brim.
The 2022 version of global shipping’s biggest event last week at the Metropolitan Expo center therefore set new benchmarks for volume, size and quality, making Posidonia organizers confident that the potential for further growth will always be there.
With these fundamentals intact and even stronger compared to the 2018 event, and with the absence of many Asian and mainly Chinese visitors who could not have attended this year’s event due to Covid-related travel restrictions, the assumption of an even greater 2024 event is a credible one.
“Our challenge for this year was to resume the event and rediscover the momentum lost during the height of the pandemic. I think we did a pretty good job to not only achieve both of our basic objectives for the event, but to also set the bar even higher for the future,” said Theodore Vokos, managing director of Posidonia Exhibitions SA.
“The response and feedback we received from exhibitors, visitors, government officials and maritime stakeholders was overwhelmingly buoyant. The four-year gap brought even more energy and a renewed optimism everywhere you looked and all indications are that the industry will continue to support Posidonia for years to come.”
The type of exhibitor feedback ranged from admiration to gratitude. In the words of Richa Dutt Nandan, marketing manager at Varuna Marine Services, Posidonia 2022 was “a series of conversations between shipowners and service providers, the class and the flag states, the associations and organizations, the design and the innovation. A melting pot for traditions, ideas and innovations brought in by thousands of worldwide companies and professionals.”
Others were astounded by the record numbers: “It was great to see Posidonia back, bigger and better than ever. Record numbers of visitors and exhibitors. It gave us a great opportunity to see our clients face to face after such a long time in lockdown. Gulf Oil Marine will continue to support the Greek shipping community and we will look forward to the next Posidonia,” said Gulf Oil Marine CEO David Price.
