Harmonising maritime digital interfaces: From alignment to action in International Shipping News 22/06/2026 BIMCO, in close collaboration with ITS Norway and the DYNAPORT project, convened a two day industry workshop in Copenhagen to explore how the maritime sector can accelerate the harmonisation of digital interfaces across ship to shore stakeholders. Bringing together 45 representatives from shipping companies, ports, authorities and solution providers, the workshop provided a neutral forum, held under the Chatham House Rule, for open discussion on one of the most pressing challenges in maritime digitalisation: achieving practical interoperability at scale. From ambition to implementation The discussions centred on three interconnected themes shaping the future of maritime digital exchange: • Business value as a driver for adoption, focusing on how clear commercial benefits can accelerate convergence around digital solutions • Alignment of data and systems, including information payloads, semantics and transport mechanisms needed to enable interoperability • Trust in a global ecosystem, addressing identity, authentication and governance across multiple stakeholders and jurisdictions. Across these themes, there was strong consensus that while significant progress has been made in defining frameworks and standards, the core challenge now lies in consistent implementation. Three key conclusions The workshop highlighted three critical insights for the industry: • The IMO Compendium as the semantic foundation Participants consistently recognised the IMO Compendium as the essential reference point for maritime digitalisation. It provides alignment on definitions and meaning, acting as a common language across stakeholders. However, it is not intended to serve as a technical or operational blueprint. • Federated architectures as the most viable path forward Rather than pursuing centralised platforms, the industry is converging on federated approaches. These enable exist