In this episode of Innovation to Impact, we sit down with Shakib, Chief Technology and Innovation Officer at Lloyd's Register and Chairman of the Safetytech Accelerator Board, for a conversation that cuts through the noise around maritime innovation.

We explore why so much technology looks promising on paper but fails to deliver at scale — and why data silos, not a lack of digital ambition, are the real bottleneck. Shakib breaks down the difference between technology that is genuinely disruptive and technology that is merely distractive, and what that distinction means for startups, operators, and class societies trying to navigate a fast-changing industry.

We also get into the generational shift underway in maritime, what classification societies actually do for technology adoption (and where they can get in the way), why autonomous vessels are further off than conference talk suggests, and why Safetytech Accelerator exists to fill a gap that even Lloyd's Register can't fill alone.

If you're working at the intersection of safety, innovation, and maritime operations, this one is worth your time.

Recorded live at Singapore Maritime Week, this special episode of Innovation to Impact brings together voices from across the maritime ecosystem to explore one central question: what does it really take to move innovation from conversation to real-world adoption?

Across a series of short reflections, industry leaders share their perspectives on the future of maritime, the importance of collaboration, and the challenges shaping safety, decarbonisation, digitalisation and technology adoption.

For Safetytech Accelerator, Singapore Maritime Week was a chance to listen, connect and explore how the industry can work together to close the gap between promising ideas and meaningful impact.

Because innovation is everywhere. Real impact is not.

In this episode, we explore: – What maritime innovation looks like on the ground – Why adoption is often harder than invention – The role of trust, evidence and collaboration – How the maritime sector can turn shared challenges into scalable solutions

Listen to more episodes of Innovation to Impact and follow Safetytech Accelerator for future conversations on safety, technology and industry transformation.

In this Road Diaries episode, we sit down with Kassie during the Cargo Fire & Loss Innovation Initiative anchor partner meeting in Athens to reflect on where the programme is now, what we heard from partners, and what comes next.

Cargo fires remain one of the maritime industry’s most complex safety challenges. They are not simply a technology problem — they sit across the wider ecosystem of cargo declaration, risk visibility, vessel operations, insurance, detection, prevention, emergency response and industry adoption.

Over two days in Athens, anchor partners came together to discuss the progress of the programme, the barriers still facing the industry, and how collaboration can help move promising solutions closer to real-world impact.

In this episode, we discuss:

How the Cargo Fire & Loss Innovation Initiative is progressing Why cargo fire prevention requires ecosystem-wide collaboration What makes adoption difficult in safety-critical maritime environments The value of bringing partners together in person What we enjoyed most about Athens And yes — a robot dog makes an appearance

At Safetytech Accelerator, our work is focused on helping move innovation beyond pilots and into practical, trusted and scalable adoption. Cargo fire prevention is exactly the kind of challenge where that approach matters: complex, urgent, and impossible for any single organisation to solve alone.

There is no competition when it comes to safety.

At Singapore Maritime Week, we spent time speaking with operators, startups, and industry leaders to understand a simple question:

What’s actually holding innovation back?

This episode of Innovation to Impact: Road Diaries captures a raw, on-the-ground reflection from the week — not focused on new technology, but on the real challenges behind adoption.

Across conversations, a few themes kept coming up:

• A lack of trust across the industry
• Endless trials without decisions
• The difficulty of balancing impact with competitiveness
• The challenge of taking that first step

As one of the key takeaways from the week:

“no one in the industry really trusts each other”

And perhaps more importantly:

“you just need to get going”

At Safetytech Accelerator, we focus on closing the gap between innovation and real-world adoption — working across safety-critical industries to turn ideas into measurable impact.

This is the first in a series of Road Diaries recorded live from global industry events.

In this midweek reflection recorded live at Singapore Maritime Week, Marius Suteu and Sam Somerville-Ryan share their early observations from across the event.

Drawing on conversations with startups, operators, and industry stakeholders, they explore a central tension:

innovation is everywhere — but adoption remains a challenge.

The discussion focuses on the gap between building new technologies and deploying them in real-world maritime environments, and why many solutions struggle to gain traction despite strong intent across the industry.

What happens when innovation focuses on solving real problems instead of just looking innovative? In this episode, we sit down with Marius, Managing Director of Safetytech Accelerator, to explore what makes our approach different — and why that matters for the future of safety-critical industries.

Marius breaks down how we evaluate technology from a vendor-agnostic position, focusing on whether solutions actually work rather than promoting specific companies. We discuss the gap between promising trials and meaningful adoption, the barriers organisations face when implementing new technologies, and why impact — not just innovation — has to be at the centre of how we work.

From maritime to aviation, construction to mining, we're bridging the space between startups, industry partners, and regulators to ensure that innovation doesn't just make headlines — it makes a difference. And we're not just plugging holes; we're working to prevent them from appearing again.

Plus: Marius answers our signature question — if you could ban one technology forever, what would it be?