The Maritime Alliance Visits Ocean Business Conference

April 14th, 2015, Southampton, United Kingdom:

Members of the Maritime Alliance (TMA) traveled to the Ocean Business 2015 Conference in Southampton, where TMA President, Michael Jones, spoke on Blue Tech and the Blue Economy, at a day long program attended by other international representatives of maritime clusters.  The conference organizers reported a 29% increase attendance (over 2013), with 4,589 total visitors, 38% from outside of the UK.

TMA Board members in Southampton:  from left to right:  Bryan Bjorndal, Assure Controls; Rick Timm, Teledyne SeaBotix; Eric Patten, Ocean Aero; Darryl Symonds, Teledyne RDI; and Michael Jones.  Missing:  Chris Ward, Xylem Analytics) 

At the conference, TMA met with executives of companies, clusters, and the National Oceanography Centre in Southampton. The rest of the week was spent in Plymouth “Britain’s Ocean City”, another maritime cluster of the UK’s southwest coast.

Eric Patten, TMA Board Member, and CEO/President of http://www.oceanaero.us/http://www.oceanaero.us/, reported that "Plymouth University's facilities at the Marine Institute, and faculty were impressive, innovative, and we were excited by the support of the public officials. As an example, the recent donation of land by the Ministry of Defense for maritime technology development shows a real commitment to the maritime economy."

TMA Board Member,  Bryan Bjorndal, CEO of Assure Controls, who has been in the UK for several weeks to expand his company’s business, was pleased that several representatives from the Plymouth maritime community have confirmed attendance for the upcoming The Maritime Alliance 7th annual BlueTech Summit, in San Diego, CA  on Nov. 9-10.

About The Maritime Alliance: The Maritime Alliance, themaritimealliance.org, is a 501(c)6 nonprofit industry association that isthe cluster organizer for the San Diego maritime technology community, and fosters maritime business and technology.