Poseidonia 2022: Global shipping’s greatest event

Posidonia, the gemstone of world shipping events, reopened its doors after a two-year hiatus with an impressive welcome from the global shipping community.

One cannot but wonder if Posidonia 2024 can be even bigger, more glamorous and more influential than the experience the global shipping community savored last week at the Athens Metropolitan Expo?

One never knows, but everyone says: “Surely, it will be.”

With 1,964 exhibitors from 88 countries and around 29,000 visitors from 103 countries flooding the showroom and conference rooms, this year’s event raised the bar in terms of international prestige, size and quality exposure. The total number of participants, including exhibitors, visitors and members of the press, exceeded 40,000.

The exhibition proved to be even better than the 2018 event, by all accounts, and factoring in the absence of many Asian – mostly Chinese – exhibitors, who could not attend this year’s exhibition due to travel restrictions, the prospect of an even bigger event in 2024 is absolutely realistic.

Theodoros Vokos, CEO of Posidonia SA Exhibitions noted as much saying “I think we did a pretty good job, not only in achieving both of our main goals, but also in setting the bar even higher for the future,” also noting the blizzard of extremely positive impressions and comments from exhibitors, visitors, government officials and shipping agencies.

And the comments were more than auspicious. In the words of Richa Dutt Nandan, Marketing Director of Varuna Marine Services, Posidonia 2022 was “A crucible for traditions, ideas and innovations shared by thousands of companies and professionals worldwide.”

Others waxed lyrical, like shipping author Minas Tsamopoulos who soted that Posidonia 2022 “came as a much-needed rainfall to quench the shipping industry and its people from the four-year drought caused by the pandemic.” In the words of Splash publisher Sam Chambers, this year’s Posidonia was “the revelation party of the international shipping community. The lights, the noise and the people overflowed from Posidonia wherever you went.”

For others such as David Price, CEO of Gulf Oil Marine the event was bigger and better than ever.

Mr. Vokos’ remarks are an apt conclusion of the shipping industry’s main global event: “Posidonia is an ambassador of the industry, a symbol of prestige that highlights the country’s maritime heritage, and serving this role we will always remain faithful to our commitment and mission: to help all members of the shipping community to they are charting their course, networking and collaborating effectively, for many more years.”