Getting the message out

I was inspired by a recent article from one of the UK broadsheets that was undoubtedly the result of an arranged press trip to the infamous, in the UK at least, London Gateway. Operator DP World’s public relations machines has been mercilessly churning away to get inches of column print on its UK hub.

There’s many a naysayer that needs convincing of the need for the terminal, hence the determined mission to get the news and the message out there. But regardless of your view on the need for such a terminal and forgetting the specifics of the article that relate to London Gateway, it’s the broader perspective on large ports that captured my imagination.

Written by the newspaper’s architecture and design critic, the article is a refreshingly different take on how those outside of our industry view the stuff that we take for granted. The analogies with easily recognisable landmarks – the terminal is twice the size of the City of London, you could ‘happily roll’ the London Eye under the quay cranes – make it accessible to the general public.

The author Oliver Wainwright describes teams of people in the operations centre examining what looks like a “fiendishly complicated game of Tetris” and the spindly-legged shuttle carriers as “creatures from Star Wars”. There’s a link to the article on Port Strategy’s LinkedIn group.

Capturing the public imagination is notoriously difficult and something that comes up time and time again at conferences, without any real resolution. Author Rose George managed to get seafarers under the public’s nose in her Deep sea and foreign going novel; we need a similar non-port pundit to relate port operations to everyday life.

Next generation

On World Maritime Day last month, the International Maritime Organisation opened its doors to school children, aged four through to sixteen. The younger children were treated to interactive sessions where they learned about ships, the cargoes they carry, regulations for ships and the whole range of careers in the maritime world, while the older students heard from a range of speakers about the maritime world. The end result was a room full of engaged children, eager to hear more about the maritime world. But while it was a fantastic exercise, it only scratches the surface when it comes to information flow and isn’t specific to ports.

As Mr Wainwright rightly points out in his column: “The cumbersome business of how 90% of our goods reach us from all over the world doesn’t tend to impinge on the public psyche.” True enough, and a very good reason to try to do better when it comes to relaying the engineering feats, the sheer scale, and the tenacious industriousness of ports.

As well as a non-port pundit to fly the flag for ports, how about creating a World Ports’ Day to bang the drum about ports on a global scale? Rotterdam has already taken the first step; we now need a concerted global effort. Open our doors, invite the world in and see if we can inspire the next generation. Who’s up for the challenge?