There was a youthful new vibe at Singapore Maritime Week.

Joining the usual grey-suit brigade of shipping veterans at the annual event was a younger and more diverse generation of professionals clad in jeans and T-shirts — the digital entrepreneurs who are inventing the technology that will one day turn shipping into a zero-emissions industry.

Not surprisingly, decarbonisation and technology topped the discussion agenda at the many conferences, seminars, workshops and briefings — perhaps too much for some of the older hands, who by the end of a gruelling week grumbled that they were suffering from “decarbonisation information overload syndrome”.