Benetti Yachtmaster: The twenty-first edition will be Phygital

Benetti Yachtmaster: The twenty-first edition will be Phygital © Benetti

Benetti launches its twenty-first Yachtmaster in an unprecedented phygital version. This long-running event dedicated to captains and professionals in the superyacht industry will be held this year on February 18 and 19, offering a packed programme of opportunities to meet and exchange views, interspersed with entertainment initiatives.

The common thread running through this edition will be the technology and product innovations featured on new generation yachts, which increasingly focus on the environment.

As in previous years, numerous important partners will attend the event and a virtual trade show is being organised for them to exhibit their products.

Even in such an unusual year, Benetti is going ahead with Yachtmaster, one of the industry's most eagerly awaited and popular events reserved for captains, crew and all the professionals involved in a superyacht's life cycle. The event, now in its twenty-first year, confirms just how much emphasis Benetti places on an area in which training and information play a key role.

Unable to organise the usual cycle of meetings or a touring event with physical attendance, this year Benetti has developed a more sophisticated remote solution and as a result the 2021 edition of Yachtmaster on February 18 and 19 will be phygital (a hybrid physical and digital event). All participants, including the Benetti management team, will connect remotely to a specially created virtual platform offering unlimited access to content, videos and live streams.

The theme running through this edition, moderated by well-known influencer David Seal, will be the Next Generation Yachts characterised by advanced technology and design excellence. All these distinctive features of Benetti's history and tradition take on even more importance today, encouraging careful consideration of sustainability issues. Benetti turns its attention to the impact on the ecosystem and has always invested in research to find winning solution for owners to improve the eco-friendliness of their superyachts, starting from the choice of materials and propulsions system, and then in all aspects of the construction process.

The opening speech by Group vice president Giovanna Vitelli will start work on the morning of February 18, with the Benetti management team (Marco Valle, Azimut|Benetti CEO; Sebastiano Fanizza, Benetti Chief Commercial Officer; Toby Walker, Benetti Sales Area Manager; Benedetta Moreno, Azimut|Benetti Marketing Director; Federico Lantero, Azimut|Benetti Product Marketing & Communication Director) playing host and taking guests on a virtual guided tour to visit some of the less well-known areas of the shipyard, including the Benetti Heritage Museum, as well as presenting the fleet's novelties.

To examine the issues tackled by this year's edition, plenary sessions and workshops have been organised with partners Akzonobel, Asea Power Systems, Boero, CGT, CMC Marine, Dockwise/Sevenstar, Hug Engineering, Jotun, Lusben, Radinn, Rina, Seastema, Simrad, Slam and Viraver, alternating with entertainment, team building and recreational initiatives for crews designed by Benetti to demonstrate how onboard hospitality and a caring attitude to customers and their needs and well-being are central to the Shipyard's approach, even after the completion of construction and delivery.

In addition to the classic and eagerly awaited Owner's Team Perspective meeting, which this year welcomes captains Frank Hesse (M/Y "Metis") and Clinton White, for the first time the 2021 Yachtmaster is proposing a virtual trade show organised specifically for partners. As they would at a trade fair, guests will be able to visit virtual stands, communicate with companies in real time through chat channels, one-to-one video calls and virtual meeting rooms, or book a private appointment with all participants in the days after the event, until February 23.