Inaugural eCMID Conference report

IIMS in conjunction with Marine Surveying Academy delivered a hugely successful first eCMID one day Conference, which took place in Amsterdam by Schiphol Airport on 25 April.

The feedback from the event, which drew around 40 delegates, was extraordinarily positive. On behalf of IMCA, Chris Baldwin said how delighted he was with the number of Accredited Vessel Inspectors that have already come forward to join and be accepted on the scheme. He praised IIMS for their delivery of the programme and its robustness.

eCMID AVIs play a key role inspecting and auditing offshore vessels in the oil and gas and renewables sectors. The Conference was a chance for some of them to come together to network with other AVIs and to learn abut the programme and its constituent components.

In his opening address and presentation, IIMS CEO, Mike Schwarz, gave some background to the early stage development of the scheme as well as sharing his thoughts and hopes on its future.

Chris Baldwin gave an update from IMCAs perspective and looked forward to the changes from 1 January 2018 when only accredited AVIs will be able to access the online eCMID database.

Capt Ian Coates, IIMS member and lead eCMID AVI tutor, spoke about some of the learnings from the courses that have seen over 200 people attend across the world.

IMCA eCMID database controller, Ryan Foley, joined the meeting remotely from London. He gave a list of some of the most frequently asked questions with answers and took some questions from the audience too.

Capt Mike Vanstone, representing Vattenfall, a large vessel operator, used his presentation to explain their operation as well as stressing what he wanted from an AVI and that it is their intention, wherever possible, to use only those accredited under the scheme.

Capt Anders Boman, CEO Northern Offshore Services, provoked some debate when he spoke about the unregulated area that is vessels below 500 gross tonnes and in particular fast crew transfer craft and the significant challenges they face.

Ursula Smith and Sujit Viswanathan, both experienced AVIs, gave expert and in depth presentations on the DP and Heavy Lift supplements contained within the eCMID, before the day concluded with a panel discussion and debate.

Mike Schwarz said, “I am delighted at the positive delegate feedback. I think we pitched the first conference at the right level and attracted some excellent speakers.”

He added, “Being involved with the eCMID scheme right from the outset has given me huge pleasure, especially knowing that our actions are having a direct and positive impact on cleaning up an area of the industry that was unregulated. In this day and age it is vital to know that an inspector boarding a vessel is competent to do so.”