LONDON and AMSTERDAM, July 3, 2012 /PRNewswire/ --

Defence IQ announces the return of its flagship Offshore Patrol Vessels conference, taking place from 25-27 September 2012 in Amsterdam, The Netherlands.  Running for the 7^th time, the event once again provides a 3-day networking and learning platform for high-level members of global navies, coast guards and industry.

The summit comes at a critical time of evaluation for the maritime community.  With a majority of naval defence budgets shrinking, the current challenge for naval professionals is to not only assess potential opportunities within emerging markets, but to also understand how to work in alignment with regional ship builders in order to meet specific offset requirements.  

To address this concern, this year's OPV event features its most international speaker faculty to-date, representing 20+ countries, to discuss and examine emerging markets such as Latin America, the Middle East and Africa.  

Brand new highlights include the anticipated "How to Successfully Enter Emerging Markets, Discover New Areas for Investment and Find Partners for Joint Ventures" round table session, which is set to feature senior representatives from South Korea, India, and Colombia amongst others, and offers participants an interactive opportunity to match their capabilities to future requirements and to find out possibilities for joint ventures.

This balance of high-level strategic briefings with interactive panel discussions, combined with intimate and face-to-face networking opportunities provides participants a much-welcomed and valuable experience onsite, as confirmed by the organiser's well-received launch event of Offshore Patrol Vessels Latin America last May in Rio de Janiero.

Comments OPV Latin America Chairman, Rear Admiral Francisco Deiana, Director of Naval Engineering, Brazilian Navy: "Defence IQ's Offshore Patrol Vessels conference is an important reference world forum concerning the growing use of these naval assets, when senior representatives from different Navies can present and discuss the solutions they have found to reconcile technical issues with operational tasks and budget constraints so as to better accomplish their missions."

Netherlands-based ship builder, Damen Schelde Naval, joins as 2012 Lead Sponsor, in addition to DCNS, Fassmer, Hawke Transit Systems, Northrop Grumman, STX Canada Marine and Thales.  Participating countries include Albania, Australia, Brazil, Cameroon, Chile, Finland, France, Germany, India, Ireland, Italy, Mexico, the Netherlands, Nigeria, Peru, Portugal, South Africa, Spain, the US, and Yemen.

Visit http://www.offshorepatrolvessels.com for details or follow @opvevents.

About Defence IQ: Defence IQ is a unique multimedia platform to discuss and learn about the latest developments in the industry. Join the 50,000-strong community now: http://www.defenceiq.com/join.cfm.

 

Defence IQ · Kim Vigilia · opv@iqpc.co.uk · +44(0)20-7368-9510 · London, UK

SOURCE Defence IQ