The network at work! 2021 in review

December 22, 2021

Despite the continued challenge of the global pandemic, for WISTA South Africa members, 2021 featured a full schedule of member networking events, activities and webinars. During the course of the year, the WISTA South Africa National Mentoring Programme was launched and featured 12 mentoring pairs, 2 Scholarships were awarded and 2 new EXCO members – Amsha Gengan and Nomcebo Sibisi – were elected to the Board of Directors as we said a BIG thank you and farewell to outgoing members Mandy McGuire and Sheena Diaz.

We also partnered with a number of industry organisations, participating in events in collaboration with Saldanha Bay IDZ (Togasi series), the Eastern Cape Maritime Business Chamber, Ethekwini Maritime Cluster, South African International Maritime Institute (SAIMI), South African Maritime Safety Authority (SAMSA) as well as the Maritime SHEO initiative. We also collaborated in the region as part of the WISTA International ‘Africa Focus Group’; also participating in global WISTA International events, meetings and webinars.

Sharing information about the industry is one of our focus areas and this saw us hosting guest speakers on topics that ranged from Marine Insurance, Shipping Law, the grounding of the ‘Ever Given’ to ‘Leading through complexity’ – a panel discussion that featured industry CEOs . We also launched our ‘Pitch & Network’ series which sees members marketing their businesses within the network and promoting their skills and experience.

In this year – it has been wonderful to see so many WISTA South Africa members make career and life changes, launch businesses, change jobs, achieve qualifications, make connections and move forward. We look forward to all that 2022 brings!

If you’d like to get in touch with the WISTA South Africa team, please email us on wistasouthafrica@gmail.com.