Conference Program Schedule – Copy

The future of the U.S. inland waterway system requires investing in both physical infrastructure and adopting new technologies.  

Lock modernization and channel expansion are critical, yet they can't fix the coordination gaps that slow operations. And AI-driven tools are only as good as the structured data feeding them, which the industry has historically lacked. Neither approach alone can address the full challenge. 

This session examines why physical and digital systems must advance together, where inefficiencies are occurring, and what a connected waterway network looks like in practice. 

Attendees will:

• Understand why the "infrastructure vs. technology" debate misses the real problem — and what a more complete strategy looks like
• Learn what it takes to build a digital coordination layer that works alongside physical investment to improve planning, execution, and asset utilization
• Leave with a realistic picture of what progress could look like in three to five years

As of July 2025, every vessel, port facility, and offshore operation in U.S. waters must have a cybersecurity program under the Coast Guard's new Final Rule — and most commercial operators aren't ready.  

This session cuts through complicated jargon to provide a practical guide for working maritime operations. Drawing on hard-won lessons from naval cybersecurity, speakers will give commercial operators a clear, practical path to compliance without blowing their budgets or timelines. 

Attendees will:

• Understand exactly what the Coast Guard Cybersecurity Final Rule requires
• Learn the critical difference between IT and OT cybersecurity, and why that distinction shapes your entire compliance strategy
• Identify the three vulnerabilities most operators overlook 
• Walk away with a realistic first step to compliance

A vessel has run aground on the Lower Mississippi, miles south of New Orleans. Night is falling, a second tow is bearing down in the channel, and calls are coming in from the Coast Guard, the owner, and the underwriter. What do you do, and in what order? 

This session doesn't answer that question for you, it puts you in the room where the answer gets made. Working through a realistic Mississippi River grounding scenario in real time, attendees in this participatory session will grapple with the decisions that salvage masters, tug captains, marine surveyors, and response coordinators face in the field.  

The session unfolds in structured phases, with complications introduced as the situation evolves — a suspected hull breach, environmental reporting obligations, a second vessel becoming a navigation hazard. Small groups work through each escalation with experienced practitioners before coming back together for a debrief grounded in three foundational principles: safety of life, environmental protection, and salving the vessel. 

Attendees will:

• Work through a realistic Lower Mississippi grounding scenario and practice sequencing decisions when everything is urgent 
• Examine how priorities shift as a casualty escalates and what professional framework guides those decisions under pressure
• Compare notes with experienced tug operators and marine professionals on emergency response decision-making in real shallow-water casualty conditions
• Leave with a transferable mental model for the next time something goes sideways on the water 

Most maritime operators are still running their fleets the way they always have: crew credentials tracked in spreadsheets, maintenance logs in binders, and training records scattered across email chains. It worked until it didn't. Vessels got held up because a credential lapsed and nobody caught it. Shoreside staff spent their days re-entering data instead of supporting the fleet. New hires showed up without the right endorsements because no one had a clear picture of what training they needed. 

This panel puts those operators on stage to talk about what changed when they made the switch to modern tools for fleet management. They'll speak directly to what the transition looked like from the inside, what was easier than expected, what took longer, and what the ROI looked like once the dust settled.

Attendees will:

• Hear firsthand how operators moved from manual processes to modern fleet management systems, and what that transition required
• Understand the real costs of staying on paper: time, compliance risk, and mariner retention
• Learn what to look for when evaluating tools, how to make the case for change internally, and what operators wish they had known before they started 

• Walk away with a clear sense of where to begin this operational transition 

Included in America's maritime workforce shortage is a shrinking pool of design and engineering talent that makes timely, affordable naval construction possible. An aging workforce, irregular design workloads, and a thin bench of early- and mid-career naval architects have created a dangerous gap between shipbuilding ambition and executable capability. The competitive landscape has shifted, too. Foreign design entities, backed by national investment in digital engineering and model-based systems, are gaining ground. 

This session will examine the need for Congress to approve a dedicated $50 million naval architecture and ship design workforce development program, and the importance of sovereign naval vessel design capabilities to the nation's security and the Navy's long-range shipbuilding plans. It will also spotlight existing workforce development activities aimed at addressing this ongoing challenge.

Attendees will:

• Gain a clear picture of the current architecture and design workforce gap and the federal policy momentum behind closing it
• Learn how strategies like continuous design workloads, expanded academic pathways, apprenticeship pipelines, and training academies can prevent the expertise loss 
• Explore how early design maturity — supported by advanced digital tools — reduces change orders, compresses schedules, and sharpens competition
• Leave with actionable steps that maritime industry stakeholders can pursue now, ahead of and alongside federal policy momentum