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A meeting place for oil companies, off- shore shipowners and players on whom they are dependent, expect the Agenda Offshore conference again in 2013. New Initiatives Our aim is not only to repeat and im-prove on our successes from 2011 but to also raise the bar by broadening Nor- Shipping, making a world-class event even better. As part of our plan to expand our support of the maritime industry, Nor-Shipping has played a key role in es- tablishing Oslo Maritime Week. A new event organized by the Norwegian mar- itime cluster for local and internationalpeers, it focuses on diverse maritime services via hot-topic seminars. Socialevents that gather all participants and en- courage cross-industry networking are an integral component. Taking place every second year, Oslo Maritime Week will alternate with Nor- Shipping. The inaugural event is sched- uled for May 30 ? June 1, 2012.Some other new initiatives are sched- uled to take place during Nor-Shipping 2013. These include: ?Innovation Park,? where companies that have relevant solu- tions or products present themselves; ?Venture Park?, which allows start-up companies to present to investors and to have an affordable first-time entry as a Nor-Shipping exhibitor; and Nor-Ship- ping Finance Week, a high-level arena for companies and new ventures to present themselves to private and institutional in- vestors. Look to NorwayWhile our visitors come from around80 countries, the Norwegian maritime cluster?s strong presence at Nor-Shipping is a big attraction for many of our inter- national delegates. Norway is home to the most complete maritime cluster in theworld, with every part of the value chain represented ? from shipowners to ship- builders, from shipbrokers and classifica- tion societies to technology providers. The result is unique multi-party collabo-ration, innovation and competence ? all of which are on display at Nor-Shipping. As part of our work with Oslo Maritime Week, research was recently commis- sioned to clarify the role of Oslo as com-pared to other leading maritime cities inthe world. Menon Business Economics benchmarked 12 cities in five categories ? shipowners and shipping operation, maritime finance, maritime law and in- surance and maritime technology andcompetence. The research confirms that Oslo is one of the top five global mar- itime capitals, shoulder-to-shoulder with Singapore, London, Hamburg and Hong Kong. In particular, Oslo is shown to be the leader in maritime finance and on the commercial side, in terms of shipowners and shipping operations. The Future is Maritime Our emphasis on the question ?What?s next?? makes it clear that Nor-Shipping is oriented towards the future. It may be true that predicting the future is ?like peering through frosted glass?, as thenIMO Secretary-General EfthimiousMitropoulos said at the Nor-Shipping 2011 Opening Conference. But we know that bringing the right people togetherand providing them with a dynamic net- working venue makes things happen. Just ask Sevan Marine?s Arne Smedal and Teekay Corporation?s Peter Evensen who met each other during our 2011event week. They worked throughout the fol- lowing summer on a business model that would help save Sevan Marine, which was struggling with high debt. That au- tumn, Sevan Marine announced an agree- ment for financial restructuring and industrial partnership with Teekay Cor- poration.May 2012 marinelink.com23Vidar Pederstad is the Director of Nor-Shipping. Email: [email protected] May 12 # 3 (17-24):MR Template 5/8/2012 11:37 AM Page 23