This month, BEC has hosted five committees featuring the participation of entities from the naval, fishing, ports and marine energy sectors

November has been a particularly busy month for organising World Maritime Week 2025, with four meetings of the scientific committees of Sinaval, Eurofishing, Futureport and Marine Energy Week being held at Bilbao Exhibition Centre, as well as a fifth meeting of the Technical Advisory Committee, focusing on the overall content of the event.

The main objective of these committees is to provide guidance and support for strategic decisions in the organisation of the meeting, through the exchange of ideas, collaboration and constructive feedback on the decisions and proposals that are presented. This group of experts consists of representatives of the main clusters and associations of the four sectors. All of this is to ensure that World Maritime Week brings added value to the industry and quality opportunities to all its participants. Their role is essential in shaping the meeting, since they are the ones who best know and represent the needs of the sector.

In this respect, the conference’s structure has already been laid out. The WMW 2025 conference programme will take place on 19 and 20 March. Both days will start with an opening session with European representatives giving an overview of the policies being implemented and their impact on the sector.

Each day will also include two cross-cutting sessions to address issues common to the four sectors (shipbuilding, fisheries, ports and marine energies) and four monographic sessions, one per sector.

The sessions will cover topics such as the blue economy and strategies of other regions to identify synergies and joint projects; decarbonisation and the challenges of implementing it in the four sectors; digitalisation and the implementation of AI in the maritime industry; and ways to ensure the competitiveness of the European maritime industry in the international market.

The WMW 2025 organising team has intensified its meetings and visits to various maritime forums in recent weeks to promote the holding of this event, which has already received confirmation from exhibiting firms from the Basque Country, Madrid, Galicia and Levante, as well as international representation from Norway and France. Moreover, it has been decided to set up an additional stage within the Exhibition area so that any exhibiting company wishing to use it for presentations or commercial talks can do so, further enhancing the visibility and impact of its participation in the event.

The organisers are also continuing to work on an interesting programme for the visiting firms at WMW. Thus, on Friday 21 March, Technical Visits will be organised to WMW participating and collaborating companies in the CAV: shipyards, port facilities, maritime and fishing technology companies, propulsion equipment and systems suppliers, specialised engineering companies, and offshore platforms, among others.

Finally, the next edition of World Maritime Week will feature an Employment Forum; this is an initiative aimed at bridging the gap between the need for companies to attract and retain talent, and the lack of qualified training of people. The aim is to generate interest among young people in the sector and to encourage their participation in training programmes (courses, masters, modules, trades, etc.) that will meet the current demands of the labour market. Participating companies will be able to present their job offers and hold interviews with people interested in them.

World Maritime Week is the gathering point for key players in the global maritime industry. This Maritime Forum brings together industry professionals every two years, to forge international alliances, share information and address new challenges in the sector.

 

SCIENTIFIC COMMITTEES:

  • Sinaval: Basque Maritime Forum, Azti, Cintranaval, DNV, Soermar, Spanish Maritime Cluster and Tecnalia
  • Eurofishing: Basque Government, Oppao, Opegui, Opescaya, Anabac and Azti
  • Futureport: Basque Government, Uniport, Bilbao Port Authority, Prosertek, Idom, UPV/ EHU and Tratos Group
  • Marine Energy Week: Tecnalia, Basque Energy Cluster, EVE, Bimep, Idom and Pymar.

 

TECHNICAL ADVISORY COMMITTEE: Uniport, Basque Government, Azti, Basque Energy Cluster and Basque Maritime Forum.