EMC EMEA Big Data Division Director challenges Ireland to become global maritime leader

Some of the large crowd gathered in the NMCI yesterday for the IMERC conference

A huge crowd of 130 people arrived at the National Maritime College of Ireland for the Annual IMERC Conference on 7th October to discuss how disruptive innovation can help Ireland realise its ocean potential. A disruptive innovation is an innovation which disrupts, improves and replaces an existing product, process approach or idea over time in unexpected ways. IMERC, the Irish Maritime and Energy Resource Cluster, is a partnership between University College Cork, Cork Institute of Technology and the Irish Naval Services. The government aims to increase turnover from the sea to €6.4 billion by 2030. Chris Roche, the CTO of EMC EMEA, challenged the gathering to make the leap to disruptive innovation. He said ‘It is fantastic to see a cluster around such an obvious potential benefit to the country. The major question is if IMERC will move at enough speed and really embrace disruptive innovation?’ Mr Roche pointed out that Ireland is not among the top ten countries with the longest coastline in the world, nor is it among the largest Maritime and Energy clusters. To be successful Ireland will have to be innovative in its approach to building networks and take advantage of big data in the maritime sector. Ireland has the largest maritime to land mass area in the EU and is the third largest territory in the EU when its seabed is included. The maritime sector has huge growth possibilities for the Irish economy. Dallas Meggitt CEO of Sound and Sea Technology also spoke at the conference. Last week Sound and Sea Technology announced the creation of 55 new jobs to be located on the IMERC campus. This conference made tangible contribution to the realisation of Ireland’s ocean potential by bringing together speakers and guests from North America and Europe from a range of backgrounds including industry, government and academia to discuss the role disruptive innovation can play in driving this sector. IMERC is already making a big contribution to this sector with advanced plans for the development of a research and commercial campus in Ringaskiddy. Related links for this article  IMERC website