Sea Asia Scores ‘Exhibition of the Year’ Award in Lion City

At a glittering ceremony in Singapore last night, Sea Asia 2009 won the prestigious ‘Exhibition of the Year’ award at the Singapore Experience Awards hosted by the Singapore Tourism Board.

Sea Asia is the region’s premier maritime gathering, organised jointly by Seatrade and the Singapore Maritime Foundation (SMF).

Michael Chia, the Chairman of the SMF, said today: “I am delighted Sea Asia has won this award and it is an honour for everyone connected with the show. I know that with so many high quality international events now being held in Singapore, the winner of this award has to demonstrate many ‘stand out’ features and I am pleased to say that Sea Asia has done just this.

“The award sets Sea Asia up very well for what I am sure will be another quality event in 2011.”

Seatrade Chairman, Christopher Hayman added: “Since we launched Sea Asia in 2007, we felt it had the capacity to become an iconic show piece event for the maritime industries across Asia. This accolade from the Singapore Tourism Board underlines our belief that Sea Asia is set to become one of the world’s leading maritime events.

“The award gives us increased impetus to deliver another high quality show in April 2011 and we are well on the way towards achieving that.”

Joyce Teng, Marketing Manager from Seatrade’s Singapore office and Evergreen’s Patrick Phoon, Board member of SMF, collected the award last night at a presentation at the Shangri-La Hotel.

Sea Asia, which was launched in 2007, is due to take place again in Singapore in April 2011. The iconic show beat off some stiff competition in the shape of other major shows put on in Singapore to clinch the award.

The Exhibition of the Year award recognises a trade exhibition and the organiser that has demonstrated excellence in organising and delivering a quality event in terms of the project management, growth and sustainability of the event, contribution to the industry growth and service excellence.

The 2009 show attracted 10,186 industry professionals from Singapore and all across Asia as well as the international maritime community in spite of the maritime sector being in the grip of the worldwide economic recession.

Sea Asia 2011 will return to Singapore for its third show on 12-14 April 2011 in a brand new location, Marina Bay Sands. The event is principally sponsored by DnB NOR Bank ASA, Lloyd’s Register and RightShip. Other sponsors include ABB Pte. Ltd., ABS, Nippon Kaiji Kyokai (ClassNK), GAC, HMS Far East Pte Ltd, Ince & Co, Jurong Port, Keppel Offshore & Marine, MTM Ship Management, PSA, Shipserv, Standard Chartered Bank and The Standard P&I Club.

Underlining Mr Hayman’s comments, the organisers SMF and Seatrade today confirmed that sales of exhibition space for next year’s event are already in excess of 3,500 net square metres, with exhibitors coming from 34 countries.

As Asia’s importance in the world maritime community grows, its views on the way in which the industry conducts itself and how it is regulated need to be correspondingly taken into account. Issues such as the threat of piracy, and the optimal response to the environmental challenge need to be addressed with the Asian viewpoint firmly in mind. These issues will be addressed at the Sea Asia 2011 conference which has lined up influential speakers like S.S. Teo of PIL, Eng Aik Meng of APL and Eivind Kolding of Maersk Line.

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Source: sea-asia, October 29, 2010