Bahri hosts second edition of its annual big data forum in Dubai

Building on the success of the inaugural edition of its big data forum last year, Bahri, a global leader in transportation and logistics, hosted industry leaders and technology experts at the second edition of the annual event, which was held in Dubai, United Arab Emirates.

Held under the theme ‘Sailing the Big Data Era 2017,’ the Bahri Big Data Forum was organized by Bahri to focus on providing industry players with a platform to push data-driven advancements in the maritime industry ecosystem. The event draw more than 200 guests including CEOs and senior executives from prominent companies around the world.

“Big data applications have helped public and private sector entities better ‎understand and serve customers, offer value-added services, optimize their ‎processes, providing the maritime industry stakeholders with a platform that allows them to achieve sustainable development. Hosting the second edition of the Bahri Big Data Forum aims at converging and discussing the potential, need and importance of collaborating to ‎create a maritime industry ecosystem that aims to push data-driven ‎advancements and enable their application,” said Mohammed Al-Sarhan, Vice Chairman of Bahri.

“This year’s edition of the Big Data Forum proved to be a remarkable engagement and knowledge-sharing opportunity for industry leaders and executives – allowing us to focus on closely ‎assess the full potential of big data technologies in the maritime sector. The forum focused on maximizing business value for the industry’s long-term growth, and how big data is disrupting the transportation and logistics sector,” said Ali Al-Harbi, Acting CEO of Bahri.

The Bahri Big Data Forum kicked off with a welcome address by Mohammed Al-Sarhan, Vice-Chairman of Bahri, and featured presentations and talks by a host of company heads and industry professionals including Remi Eriksen, Group President and CEO of DNV GL; Dr. Patrick Briest, Computer Scientist at McKinsey & Company; Giovanni Moscatelli, Partner and Managing Director at BCG Middle East; and Anwar Siddiqui, President of Bahri Data.

The presentations were followed by a CEO panel group discussion that highlighted the value and challenges of big data in shipping, and included Jonathan Lee, CEO of Tankers International; Cameron MacKay, ‎COO of Scorpio; John Schmidt, CEO of McQuilling Partners, Inc.; Scott Bergeron, CEO of Liberian International Ship & Corporate Registry (LISCR); Dr. Deema ‎M. Alsekait, Assistant Professor in CS and IT at Princess Nourah Bin Abdulrahman University; ‎and Dr. Peter Grindrod of the Oxford ‎University and Chairman of Oxonomy Limited.

The Bahri Big Data Forum also featured a second panel that saw technologists from a number of well-known companies come together to discuss big data solutions for the shipping industry. The panel discussion included Albrecht Grell, EVP – Digital Solutions and Innovation at DNV GL – Maritime; Rolf Stiefel, Head of ‎Sales and Marketing at Wartsila; Oliver Cadet, EVP at Kongsberg Maritime AS; Mikko Lepisto, SVP at ABB; Nick Pinkney, VP – Integrated Solutions at Eniram; Marco Cristoforo Camporeale, GM of Health Management Solutions at ‎Rolls Royce; and Jens Lorens Poulsen, Founder and Group CEO of The Marcura Group‎.

The event also attracted prominent exhibitors including Eniram, ABB, DNV GL, Rolls Royce, Saudi Aviation Information Technology Company (SAVIT), among others.