Why I’m Heading to London International Shipping Week (and Why You Should Too)

If you’ve been in logistics long enough, you’ve probably attended your fair share of industry events. Some are trade shows with big exhibition floors and endless booths. Others are smaller, more specialized gatherings. They all have their place.

But London International Shipping Week (LISW) isn’t either of those. It’s something different.

Rather than a single venue or giant expo hall, LISW takes place across London, inside law firms, financial institutions, historic buildings, and even on ships moored along the Thames. It’s not about collecting swag bags or walking the tradeshow floor. It’s about conversations, high-level discussions on the issues shaping global shipping and the world of supply chain.

When I sat down with founders Sean Moloney and Llewellyn Bankes-Hughes, I wanted to know why people outside the maritime world, like me, with 20+ years in trucking and brokerage, should pay attention. What I found is that LISW isn’t just another conference. It’s a platform for collaborating, understanding context, and connecting with other parts of the supply chain so we can knock down silos so we can all benefit.

Collaboration Over Competition

One of the first things Sean and Llewellyn stressed was how LISW has become a space where competitors put rivalry aside for a greater purpose.

“When we started off, we were trying to get the lawyers, for example, because the lawyers are a big part of what happens in London… But the lawyer side… They’re all competitive,” Llewellyn admitted with a laugh. “But we kind of said, well, look, if you get all the lawyers in and they’re all bringing people in, then there’s a bigger pie for everybody to share.”

That mindset worked. At LISW, rival firms have hosted events together, competitors invite each other into their offices, and organizations that normally compete collaborate to showcase the industry’s best work.

As someone who’s spent decades in trucking, I can tell you, unfortunately, this is not common. Too often, we gate-keep information and hide issues even when working together would solve problems faster. Seeing maritime leaders model collaboration instead of competition is one of the reasons I’m drawn to visiting LISW.

Making the Invisible Visible

Another theme that stood out in our conversation was the invisibility of shipping.

“You hear these lovely sayings, you know, 90% of everything we consume is shipped. And if there wasn’t any shipping, half the world would freeze, and half the world would starve,” Sean said. “And it’s true. But shipping is really an invisible industry. People just take it for granted when they go down to the supermarket. They have no idea.”

As someone who has spent years defending the importance of the work truck drivers do, that resonated. Just like seafarers, truck drivers are often undervalued and treated poorly despite being absolutely essential. Both industries are hidden in plain sight, and are only noticed when something goes wrong.

Part of LISW’s mission is to change that by bringing the industry together in one of the world’s most influential cities and showing policymakers, business leaders, and the public just how vital shipping really is. And IMO? That’s something logistics professionals from every sector should be supporting.

A New Addition: The LISW Global Hub

This year introduces something new: the LISW Global Hub. While events will still be spread across the city, the global hub will serve as a central gathering place for international delegations and high-level discussions.

As Llewellyn explained: “People always say, where is London Shipping Week? Well, it’s all over London. But this time we thought, let’s do a hub so people can say, for the internationals coming in, this is where it’s going to be for one day only.”

Sixteen delegations are expected, from countries including China, India, Greece, Denmark, Saudi Arabia, and Nigeria. They’ll be bringing ministers, trade secretaries, and ambassadors. “There’s going to be memorandums of understanding signed, all sorts of agreements during that day,” Llewellyn said. “It’s a way to bring people in, to get them involved with what we’re doing. And I think it’s a great success so far.”

The word international isn’t just in the name, it’s the whole point. It’s the shipping world coming together in London to negotiate, share ideas, and shape the future of global trade.

For someone like me, coming from the logistics and trucking side, the global hub is especially exciting. It’s a tangible example of how supply chain is truly global, what happens in one region affects every mode of transportation down the line, whether that’s ships stuck in the Suez Canal, trucks idling at ports, or rails waiting for containers.

The Importance of Context

In logistics, I’ve seen well-funded tech solutions crash and burn because they lacked context. Pricing models built in by a tech insider didn’t reflect how freight markets actually work, and the result was more chaos than clarity.

Maritime has its own version of the same story. As Llewellyn explained: “There are people on the tech side who think, ‘I’ve done this for trucks, I’ve done this for airplanes, let’s do that in shipping.’ But shipping is so slow at adopting these things that a lot of people just give up by the wayside.”

It’s not enough to have the right tool, you need the right timing, the right understanding, and the right buy-in from the industry. That’s where LISW becomes valuable, it’s one of the few spaces where those missing pieces of context actually come together.

Beyond Decarbonization and Geopolitics

Right now, decarbonization and geopolitics dominate the headlines in the world of shipping and even outside the world of shipping. They’re important, of course, but I asked Sean and Llewellyn what issues they thought were being overlooked. Their answers sounded very familiar to me as someone having a long history in trucking and logistics.

“There is a huge and growing gap in the amount of people working at sea… a lot of the engineers on ships get old. Where’s the next generation coming through?” Llewellyn said. “It’s a massive lack of experience, especially with the new fuels.”

Sean added that diversity, equity, and inclusion aren’t just nice-to-have talking points, they’re essential for attracting new talent and innovation. “The industry is changing. It’s becoming more digital, more tech-driven. How are we actually saying to people that shipping, or trucking, or logistics, is a really cool industry to be in, one that you should be doing?”

The supply chain industry overall needs to invest in training, visibility, and inclusion if we want to have a workforce ready for the challenges ahead.

Why LISW Matters (Even If You’re Not Maritime)

So why am I going to LISW for the first time this September?

Not because I want to wander a trade show floor. (There isn’t one, this event is about thought leadership, not swag bags.) Not because I suddenly became a maritime expert overnight. (I didn’t, I have so much to learn.)

I’m going because LISW is one of the few places where the entire supply chain shows up at once. Where governments, trade associations, and industry leaders sit at the same table. Where rivals set aside competition to collaborate on big issues and actually find solutions. Where people don’t just talk about the future, they actually strategize it and plan it.

And that matters to all of us, whether we’re moving goods by truck, train, plane, or ship.

If you care about the future of logistics, supply chain, and global trade, then LISW is worth paying attention to. Because the truth is simple: the challenges facing maritime aren’t all that different from the ones facing trucking, or air, or rail. And if one side of the industry is figuring out new ways to solve them, the rest of us should be listening.

So, I’ll be there, listening, learning, and hopefully sharing a perspective from the land transport side of things. And maybe, just maybe, proving that when it comes to supply chain, there’s more that connects us than divides us.