The Liverpool Maritime Industry Day, held annually, is a meeting point for those shaping the future of offshore operations and marine tech here in the UK.
Last year’s event (held on the 4th December) brought together academics, innovators, technologists, and industry leaders for a day of sharp insights and open, solutions-driven conversations. From decarbonisation pathways to AI-enabled optimisation, the agenda cut straight to the forces reshaping maritime and offshore sectors across the UK.
While the NeuWave team couldn’t get across to attend this year, we’ve put together some insights and background. A celebration of Liverpool; its history, heritage, and legacy in the UK’s maritime identity.
Let’s dive in!
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What is Liverpool’s Maritime Day?
Liverpool Maritime Industry Day is jointly held and run by a combination of Liverpool universities, alongside Mersey Maritime (a collective organisation of Liverpool and North West-based maritime and offshore companies).
Mersey Maritime has a particularly close relationship with Liverpool John Moores University (LJMU), itself being a massive hub for naval history, architecture and innovation.
The event, hosted on the University of Liverpool campus, included presentations and updates from professional offshore insiders. A collaboration of applicable and actionable academic research, and industry expertise on the topics of decarbonisation and digitalisation.
The goal is focused discussion, research showcases, and interactive workshops aimed at inspiring attendees and conversations.
Like with NeuWave founder Jana, some were also able to attend the event online.
Why did we want to attend?
Liverpool is our neighbour, being founded and based here in Manchester, and NeuWave has strong foundational ties with some key players in the Liverpool maritime scene. We’ve also got a tonne of respect for the contributions of Liverpool universities and research efforts, to our own development here at NeuWave.
But the offshore industry and maritime sectors across the whole of the UK are undergoing profound transformation – and Mersey Maritime agrees. They set out some key themes for the event, which included:
- Sustainable fuels and low/zero emission technologies
- AI, optimisation, and digital twins, and smart port operations
- Air quality monitoring and simulation modelling
- Maritime security, resilience, and systems engineering
- Policy, regulation, and investment strategies
If you’re familiar with NeuWave, then you already know that we’ve got a keen interest in a few of these topics.
The UK’s net-zero targets are ambitious, and urgently transformative; requiring digitisation, machine learning, sustainable methodology, and true optimisation. That’s the niche in which NeuWave fits.
So far, so good. This seems like our kind of crowd!
Liverpool’s role in UK maritime history
Sitting at the heart of the country’s maritime identity, Liverpool has a deep connection to the traditions and history of the everyday people working in the maritime industry.
In Liverpool, all roads lead to the docks.
The city’s first wet dock was opened over three-centuries ago, in 1715; and the iconic Albert Dock finished construction just before the mid-1800s. By the end of that century, an estimated 40% of the world’s total trade was passing through Liverpool’s docks.
The story likely doesn’t start even here, as the River Mersey may have formed a natural route into the interior of the North West for millennia.
This history is, of course, dialectical. Next time you’re in the city, see how many familiar characters of the British Empire you can find adorning street and building names. We’ll give you a hint: there’s a reason the Maritime Museum and Slavery Museums in Liverpool are so near to one another on the docks.
Liverpool has never been a place to shy away from its past, and reflections of its maritime roots and historical identity can be found everywhere. And a series of significant commercial, civic, and public buildings still stand around the city, concentrated around the dock areas.
From the shadows cast by the British Empire and the Titanic; to Irish diaspora, luxury waterfront cruises, and functionable canals that supported the world’s first heavy industry. UNESCO even credited Liverpool with “Outstanding Universal Value”.
More recently, the city has gained a well-earned reputation as a place of pioneering marine technologies and essential, next-gen offshore operations systems.
At the heart of much of this development is the work of numerous institutions, not least the Global Centre for Maritime Innovation (whom our founders have worked with closely to develop NeuWave’s identity, mission, and tools); and Mersey Maritime – those behind the Maritime Industry Day event – themselves.
Liverpool Maritime Day reaffirms what we already know: progress in offshore and maritime isn’t driven by silos, but by joined-up thinking, grounded research, and practical digital innovation. The sector is slow moving, with fast-changing needs.
Events like this keep the conversation anchored to real-world conditions.
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