Opening Plenary

Nigel Rowe - Chairman and President of Sail Training International

Increasing activities and projects to achieve growth in the development and promotion of sail training for young people internationally, and a strengthening of the organisation's commercial function, will be prominent goals for Sail Training International in the immediate future. This was the key message from the organisation's President and Chairman, Nigel Rowe, at the opening plenary session of the Conference.

Priorities for 2010 include the creation of 'self help research tools' to enable sail training vessel operators to measure and evaluate their programmes, development of the organisation's relationships with key international institutions like the International Maritime Organisation and European Commission, further piloting of the Sail Training International Trainee Logbook, and growth in the activities of the recently created International Youth Forum.

“In addition to the recent hiring of a new Chief Executive with a strong international commercial background, the commercial function will be further strengthened by hiring a second Commercial Director Rowe said. Key short-term commercial goals include improving 'added value' for event host ports and participating Tall Ships, and securing additional sponsorship funding.”
Keynote Speaker - Terry Davies, Trustee of the Sail Training International
Terry Davies was the keynote speaker at the opening plenary session and started his speech with one of Einstein's most well known quotes: “Not everything that can be counted counts and not everything that counts can be counted.”

The focus of the presentation was on how an abiding commitment to quality can distinguish an organisation and in particular, how one measures quality and how that has changed.
The buying patterns of previous generations were driven by, sometimes dubious, quantitative data that did not necessarily reflect quality. Terry's wife introduced him to qualitative research during a study involving hundreds of sail trainees and trainers, educators and professional sailors.
Davies attributes the development of qualitative research to women - known for their ability to gossip. To ask questions of each other, to enquire and to listen, wanting to know how others 'felt' about things from life experiences to birthing to cooking to medical studies.

Davies encouraged delegates to listen to Peter Allison and Kris von Wald's workshops later in the conference. They have been engaged by Sail Training International as part of its ongoing commitment to provide its membership with quality information about the benefits of sail training (phase one) and the creation of measurement instruments designed to assist sail training operators with the assessment of their own programmes (phase two).

Davies finished by telling two parables that he shares with his students aboard the Class Afloat vessel Concordia. The moral of the stories was to highlight the value of observation, asking questions and listening to others.

Presentations

Nigel Rowe