By Pauline Nava, Sr Executive Learning & Development
Thome Ship Management conducted its annual officers’ conference in Makati on April 17 and 18.
The theme of the conference was ‘Partnering for Success’ and aimed to highlight key challenges facing the company and to obtain solutions to ensure that collectively everyone can work together to achieve success.
The conference witnessed the presence of Thome’s top management and other distinguished guests speakers who presented trends and strategies pertaining to safety, PSC, vetting, environment compliance, career progression and teamwork / collaboration.
The highlight of the conference was the breakout sessions in which 70 seafarers were divided into three smaller groups. Topics included were as follows: Operational Sessions, Partnering for Success Workshop and Hard Talk Interactive Sessions.
Dividing the sessions into smaller groups made the discussions more intimate and collaborative. Speakers were assigned to each group and were able to connect on a personal level, giving their feedback on the topics covered.
This annual conference has become the most important gathering of our seaborne managers from the region. It gives senior management from all different sectors of our business the chance to meet our officers, share views and create an opportunity for networking and collaboration.
These conferences are designed to give you a plethora of usable content on a variety of relevant subjects, and will be sure to keep you up-to-date with the latest changes that are occurring within the Company.
Conferences offer the opportunity for you to be introduced to several representatives from the Company and our Prinicipals and most importantly allow you to network with others.
Listed below are some of the benefits of attending the conference for attendees as well as the Company itself:
- A platform to convey a consistent message to a large number of people. By having everyone present in one place it greatly reduces the risk of misinterpretation and any concerns can immediately be addressed – everyone leaves with the same message.
- More in depth than just informing the team; educating them through the use of presentations and workshops, we can improve the skills of a large number of colleagues quickly and efficiently.
- Having so many of our team members together in one place is a great opportunity to improve their team work and morale. Achievements can be celebrated and lessons learnt from mistakes. Through our “Partnering for Success” workshops, we can build trust and improve communication and collaboration across teams.
- Very often we are faced with a special set of circumstances onboard. Via the reflective learning concept and sharing of information, we can often learn from the experiences of others and come up with innovative ideas and solutions.
- The opportunity to share your ideas and get immediate feedback from senior representatives from the Company.
- Last but not the least, you get to network with other colleagues from within the Company and put a face to a name.
These conferences are used to influence policy and strategy as they are an ideal forum for ideas to reach senior company members. This platform provides what could be termed as ‘front line’ experience from our officers who are often most affected by the policies and strategies decided in the office.
We would like to thank all the officers and principals for actively participating in the conference and making it a huge success and look forward to increased participation for many of our colleagues.
