Do you recognize this?
You meet someone at an exhibition, start a conversation and somehow, we always end up asking the same questions:
โHow are you?โ
โHow do you like the exhibition?โ
โHas it been busy for you?โ
โAre you having a good show?โ
Nothing wrong with these questions. But they rarely lead to a conversation you remember afterwards.
So, at SMM Hamburg 2026 last week, our CEO – Cor de Kwant thought:ย letโs do things a little differently.
No standard exhibition small talk.
Instead, I asked threeย Discovery Questionsย to almost everyone I spoke with. Questions that make you stop for a moment. Think. And hopefully start a real conversation.
1. If you could fix one thing in the maritime industry tomorrow, what would it be?
2. What will disappear from this exhibition within the next ten years?
3. What do you think will be everywhere at SMM 2036 that we hardly see here today?
What we enjoyed most wasn’t just the answers.
It was seeing howย three simple questions can create so many different perspectives.
Because an exhibition like SMM isn’t only about showing what we already know or what we have built. It’s also aboutย meeting people, exchanging experiences, sharing knowledge and learning from each other. And if we ask better questions, listen to each other, share our knowledge and cooperate, we can move that industry forward together.
One Event. Three Questions. Shared Insights. That is whatย Discovery Questionsย is about. I have brought the different answers, perspectives and insights from these conversations together in the first edition:
Discovery Questions โ Issue 01-2026 | Maritime Edition
In this edition, you can discover what maritime professionals believe needs to change, what might disappear from our industry and what could become part of the maritime world of tomorrow.
Download Discovery Questions โ Issue 01-2026 | Maritime Edition here below.
A big thank you to everyone who took the time at SMM Hamburg 2026 to contribute, share their experience and openly discuss their views.
And now Iโm curious:
How would you answer these three questions?
