WISTA Colombia at the Cruise Dialogue 2020

February 20, 2020

Gender approach and Corporate Social Responsibility in the cruise industry

On February 19, 20 and 21, 2020, the Cruise Dialogue 2020 was held in Cartagena Colombia, an international conference that integrated industry meetings and academic sessions to address such important issues as: “Ports, cities and the destinations for the next day of cruise ”,“ How to better accommodate the seemingly unstoppable growth of the activity ”, among others.

The event was organized by the University of the Andes, Colombia, in collaboration with the Aegean University of Greece and the University of Genoa, Italy.

WISTA was invited together with the main ports of the region and the associations that also represent their destinations, lines and different interested sections, in order to improve the content of the debates and develop concrete proposals to achieve economic, environmental and social sustainability; trying to be more attractive also in the development of cruise activities.

Representatives of WISTA Colombia, Venezuela, the United States and Germany, participated in the round table on gender focus and corporate social responsibility in the cruise industry, held during the sessions on February 20.

On the part of WISTA COLOMBIA, Yasmin Maldonado, President of WISTA Colombia and its founding members Melissa Consuegra, Coordinator of the maritime and port administration program of the University of La Guajira and Tatiana Rabat, collaborator of the Regional Port Society of Cartagena.

WISTA Germany and WISTA Venezuela were represented by Katharina Renken, Senior Researcher at the Center for Shipping and Global Logistics and María Rodrigues, Director of the Venezuelan, Latin American and Caribbean Society of Maritime and Port Medicine; respectively.

Cassia Bömer Galvaõ, Professor at the University of Texas A&M was the representative of WISTA USA. There was also the special participation of Aimilia Papachristou, from the Universidad de los Andes.

The WISTA representatives discussed the development of the gender approach as a corporate social responsibility strategy in their fields of action, academia, private enterprise and as merchant officers working onboard vessels. During the round table attendees such as Mikeila Capella and Geraldine Knatz, women leaders in the maritime industry, shared their experiences, difficulties and satisfactions lived during their work career.

The round table moderator was Yasmin Maldonado, who at the time of closing presented, among others, the following conclusions:

• establish gender-based programs in companies from their nature and context,
• implement mentoring programs to develop the capacities of women through sharing experiences of successful professionals,
• creating a corporate image of women in leadership roles in the maritime sector,  and,
• strengthening the English language from university training, for the different types of careers that can be actors in this competition maritime industry.