Seawork, the leading European commercial marine and workboat exhibition achieved impressive numbers, with 454 exhibitors and 7,832 visitors attending the long-established three-day event. Seawork is a unique combination of undercover and quayside exhibition space, with vessels and plant afloat on the pontoons and a highly regarded conference programme. Building on the success of this year’s Seawork, the exhibition has secured record breaking stand re-bookings for 2026.
The plentiful networking opportunities spark new ideas, foster collaborations and create the support required to get projects off the ground. Seawork tackles the current business challenges across the commercial maritime sector, with a strong focus on innovation, decarbonisation, reducing emissions and operating expenses.
Unique Experiences Onboard
One aspect that sets Seawork apart is the unparalleled, hands-on experience it offers. Nowhere else can visitors go onboard and trial such a broad range of vessels, plant and equipment in one place, from high-performance RIBs, crew transfer vessels (CTVs), survey and patrol boats, to pilot vessels, harbour tugs, floating pontoons, and heavy-lift cranes. This year, visitors had the opportunity to see Damen’s first all-electric tug, RSD 2513 and RAD Propulsion’s fully electric RIB, the Odyssey 560 Zero.Seawork provides a uniquely immersive, real-world showcase of the latest marine technologies and innovations.
High Value Visitors
With representation from over 60 countries, including near-European neighbours, high-level industry engagement was clear, with a predominance of marine managers, and other C-suite executives. High profile visitors included the CEO of Volvo Penta and senior leadership from John Deere, reflecting Seawork’s strategic value as a place to do business at the top of the sector.
Visitor feedback confirmed the exhibition’s value. This was reflected in increased visit (dwell) times with nearly half of visitors making multiple visits across the three-day event.
Other examples include the UK Harbour Masters’ Association AGM, held onsite, which also celebrated its highest-ever attendance. UKHMA has confirmed it will return to Seawork in 2026 to host its AGM again, cementing the event’s importance as a trusted partner and convening platform for key industry bodies.
Seawork Conferences – Share & Learn
The Seawork conference programme provided a time to share and learn from industry experts and was the most well-attended so far. With busy sessions and expertly curated content, delegates were enthusiastic about the focus and relevance of the topics. Core themes were fuels, decarbonisation and reducing operating expenditure. The UK MOD session was oversubscribed and sessions from supporting associations such as International Marine Contractors Association (IMCA), The Civil Engineering Contractors Association (CECA) and The Workboat Association, also drew high attendances.
Seawork Award Winners Shone
The Seawork Awards also saw their highest attendance to date, celebrating people, innovation and development across the sector. Alongside recognising technological progress and industry excellence, the Awards also shone a spotlight on the next generation of maritime talent. This year, Sara Kapdi from Carnival was awarded the Young Person’s Development Award, receiving an £850 bursary to support her continued progress in the industry. The Awards provided the perfect networking environment for key players across the sector to connect, collaborate, and celebrate success.
Future Seawork
A prestigious competition supported by Maritime Research and Innovation UK (MarRI-UK), Future Seawork gives current UK university students the opportunity to showcase their ground-breaking projects in the commercial marine sector. The three winning projects were awarded exclusive opportunities for mentorship, funding, and collaboration at the exhibition.
Training & Careers Day
Seawork Careers Day produced with Maritime UK Solent, saw its strongest participation to date, with over 350 students from 24 schools and further education colleges engaging in talks, workshops, real-time apprentice-level competitions and networking as they explored career opportunities in maritime.
This year’s Seawork exhibition was the largest and most impactful so far, hosting a diverse and comprehensive range of exhibitors across the supply chain.
What they said
“Seawork seems to improve as every year goes by. Great show, atmosphere and plenty of great networking went on.” Dale Bradley, Marine Sea Services Ltd,
“Seawork has been great as an opportunity to spread the word around clean maritime and sustainable operations. It is an excellent opportunity for networking.” Andy Hurley, Marine Zero Ltd
“The annual Seawork exhibition is a great maritime event with lots of exciting activities. If your company in maritime sector misses this exciting event, it will be a huge loss!” Samson Onyeabor, Offshore Turbine Services
“First time attending Seawork, was pleasantly surprised with the size of the show and the amount of exhibitors. This is a new market in which we are looking to explore opportunities, Seawork’s proved to be a VERY good show to attend – Already in the diary for next year!” Ryan Manning, DF Capital
Planning is already underway for Seawork 2026. Save the date 9-11 June 2026!
