Event update from Chair of LRMC

Laura Lombardi, Managing Director, Usha Martin Italia and Chair of IMCA’s Lifting & Rigging Management Committee (LRMC) shares her thoughts on the recent Lifting & Rigging Seminar in Amsterdam.

First a little background

The Lifting & Rigging Seminar is put together by a workgroup, comprising people involved in the LRMC’s work so they are all IMCA members with vast experience and in-depth knowledge of offshore lifting activities within our industry.

The LRMC generates these events as forums for discussion between members and non-members alike with a focus on key technical and operational topics. Bringing together a mixture of presentations and workshops allows attendees to focus on specific topics during the day, identifying the actual state of the industry and its future requirements and encouraging contractors, suppliers, academia members and Regulatory bodies representatives to share their experience and needs.

This year’s seminar

The 2022 event was a little different for me personally, as historically I have been involved in the workgroup and Chair the LRMC but this year I stepped in at the last minute to Chair the seminar on the day as unfortunately David Cannell from TechnipFMC, who has traditionally fronted this event, was unable to attend.  Our thanks go to David for his great contribution in getting in touch with the speakers and developing the event and we look forward to his return for next year’s seminar.

This year’s theme focused on the technical side of offshore lifting and on the challenges created in the renewable energy market, which is stretching the vessels and equipment capabilities, with components which are continuously getting bigger and more complex. We had a great speaker line up with contributions from all areas of the industry, and I would like to thank each of them for their time and efforts in being part of this event and a very big thank you to all attendees for their interaction.

For the first time the seminar was sponsored, so a big thank you to Franklin Offshore, Crosby Group, Brunton Shaw and Safe Lift.

Having 120 people in the room all actively engaged in discussing challenges, sharing examples and ideas on how we can improve for the future demonstrated the clear value in face-to-face events.

We also had a dedicated open panel with the suppliers, in which question and answers were freely shared and good discussions were initiated.

Looking forward

Output from past seminars has influenced and shaped key areas of our industry and this one is set to perform just as useful a task. We have taken the output from the seminar in report format back to the LRMC and of course to the attendees.

We will shortly be sharing the event report with its findings across the industry in order to help improve safety and performance as it will help guide the LRMC define future work scope on codes and guidance.

The suggestions and comments about future items to focus on were collected during the day will be the basis for the next event.

26 October 2023 – A date for your diary – why not join us at our next seminar?  The workgroup will start their planning in January and registration details and sponsorship opportunities will be available very soon.

About Laura

Laura Lombardi is the Managing Director of Usha Martin Italia, which is the technical and R&D division of Usha Martin Group, a global manufacturer of high-tech wire ropes. Laura has a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering and has been involved with IMCA since 2010. She became the vice chair of LRMC in 2016 and chair in February 2021.

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