rising.eu Guest

Among the long list of prominent guests and speakers were Astrid Schlewing, EU project coordinator for IRIS Europe II and RISING, as well as her successor in RIS affairs Marc Vanderhaegen, RISING project coordinator Frank Arendt from ISL and IRIS-Europe Chairman Cor Venema. Bernd Birklhuber, Chairman of the Inland ECDIS expert group highlighted the functionalities and goals of RIS while via donau experts Mario Sattler (IRIS Europe II) and Lukas Seemann (RISING) who have been substantially involved in the success of the projects were among the large panel of presenters.

IRIS Europe II dealt among others with the international exchange of operational data and ship data as well as its extension with the identification of quality aspects of RIS. RISING in turn, has been working on the development of new, system-independent services and the adaptation of existing services for commercial users.

The final event itself took place in the “Landschaftspark Duisburg-Nord”, a former steel mill turned into an impressive venue. The atmosphere created by the backdrop of the blast furnaces and the piping systems gave the event an extravagant visual charm.

Live demonstration sessions for new services, presentation of results with video content and lively panel discussions were further features of the event. A Master of Ceremony who led through the program was another of the many highlights of this joint event. For those in the audience who were not fully familiar with the projects, detailed results were shown in the exhibition room of the venue.

A networking programme with an exciting tour at the Museum of German Inland Navigation and a boat trip through the impressive port of Duisburg, the largest inland port in Europe added an extra touch of sparkle to this highly successful event.