Q: How often do you hear of a not-for-profit shipping conference run by shipping professionals and not conference organisers? A: Not very. That's right. So this one's different right from the start……

WE chaired two conferences last year on manning and training. Both concluded that quite possibly the biggest problem facing our industry today is poor communication, poor management skills and, very sadly, bullying…….

UK Government plans to introduce fees for taking claims to employment tribunals and Employment Appeals Tribunals have incurred the wrath of the Law Society, which says they will create a barrier to justice……..

THERE was an impressive weapon on display at Stephenson Harwood's offices in the form of a sniper's rifle when Maritime London members met to hear a presentation on maritime security from Sven Hanson of PGS Group……..

ACCORDING to the Association of Professional Staffing Contractors, activity in the permanent recruitment market – measuring both vacancy and placement numbers – fell from August to January but is now picking up…….

GRAIN traders, it seems, like each other's company. Not since the merger of Cargill and Continental in 1998 have we seen so much talk of lying down together……….

ONE down and eleven to go and, rather predictably, we're Costa heavy this month. And, as Chinese New Year celebrations come to an end and we enter the Year of the Dragon, special events are on our minds…

SPINNAKER'S phone lines are open from 7am to 6pm GMT.

NOBODY in the shipping industry wants to be reporting on a tragedy like that which overtook the Costa Concordia on Friday the 13th and it is sad irony that only two days previously a Maritime London seminar on the salvage issues relating to large containerships warned that shipping would sooner or later face its Deepwater Horizon moment…