Liverpool city region’s £4bn maritime sector celebrated in style last night at the Mersey Maritime Industry Awards (MMIAs) 2018.
A sell-out audience of 450 people gathered for the awards ceremony, held at Liverpool FC’s Anfield stadium and hosted by BBC Breakfast presenter Louise Minchin, to see accolades handed out to the very best performers in the sector.
Sensor City was presented with the ‘Best Newcomer‘ award, to reflect the global innovation hub’s achievements since opening in June 2017.
As a specialised technical enterprise zone, Sensor City is working intelligently, creatively and collaboratively to develop a connected sensor community and make Liverpool a global hub for sensor technologies.
Dr Joanne Phoenix, Business Development Director, said: “We are delighted to have won this award.
“Not only does it reflect our early achievements in bringing innovative sensor and IoT approaches to the maritime, logistics and energy sectors, this win is the first step in driving additional awareness of Sensor City and raising our profile further within the wider Mersey Maritime community.
“We are keen to increase engagement with businesses of all sizes and in all locations, to facilitate connectivity and foster progress, helping partners to capitalise on the growing sensor revolution and develop concepts into prototypes with speed and accuracy.”
Other notable winners on the night included Liverpool John Moores University Vice Chancellor, Professor Nigel Weatherill, who was the recipient of the Maritime Ambassador’s Award and Peel Ports Group which scooped the National Impact Award. Accu-right Engineering won the Business of the Year accolade.
Addressing the guests at the start of the evening, Mersey Maritime chief executive, Chris Shirling-Rooke, outlined the breadth of the organisation’s membership and of the wider sector in the Liverpool city region.
“When we think about maritime do we think about the big data and IT companies, the offshore gas businesses and engineering companies, of which there are around 600 in the Liverpool city region – many of them exporting across the world?” he asked.
“Do we think of the lawyers and the accountants, the shipbuilders, the freight forwarders the colleges, the universities? They are all part of our maritime eco system and they support each other – that is what we do.
“We have been named as an exemplar and we are seen as the best cluster in Europe. What we do here is all about leadership and teamwork.”
The success of the MMIA 2018 evening demonstrated Mersey Maritime’s status as the leading cluster in Europe, representing a sector that employs 28,000 people across the city region. Additionally, Mersey Maritime announced that it had signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Maritime UK that will see the national body open its new northern office at the Maritime Knowledge Hub in Birkenhead.