DMW Secretary Hans Leo J. Cacdac commends the fast turnaround of applicants as 7,453 seafarers and visitors pass through two days of fully digital gates
MANILA, Philippines. The largest maritime gathering in the country has drawn to a close. BEACON 2026, home of the Beaconer’s Job Fair, brought together manning agencies, ship managers, maritime schools, training centers, industry experts and government agencies on 29 and 30 September 2026 for two days of hiring, dialogue and partnership.
Behind the crowd was a story the industry has waited years to see. For the first time, a Philippine maritime job fair ran end to end on a single digital platform. Appointed Specialized Technology Partner of BEACON just three days before the doors opened, Seaker System Technologies Inc. replaced paper forms, handwritten logbooks and manual queues with in app tickets, QR gate passes, instant CV submission and live analytics. The result was the most modern job fair the Philippine maritime sector has staged, and the fastest turnaround seafarers have experienced at an event of this scale.
From paper lines to QR gates
For decades, a maritime job fair meant the same routine. Seafarers arrived early with printed CVs, wrote the same personal details at every booth, and waited in line after line. Agencies went home with stacks of paper to encode by hand.
At BEACON 2026, that routine disappeared.
• One ticket, claimed in the Seaker App. Seafarers claimed a free ticket inside the Seaker App, which issued a personal Job Fair Gate Pass QR.
• Seconds at the gate. Six registration stations scanned each pass at the entrance. Because every profile was already complete, entry took moments instead of minutes.
• One scan per booth. Every participating manning agency received a SEAker Manning RMS account and a booth QR code. When a seafarer scanned it, their Seaker profile converted automatically into a formatted CV and landed in the agency’s system in just three seconds. No printing, no encoding, no lost paper.
One profile, entered once, delivered to every agency the seafarer chose. No repeated forms. No lost CVs. No encoding backlog after the event.
Three days to prepare, three seconds per CV
Seaker came on board as Specialized Technology Partner only three days before the event. In that window the team set up six registration stations, issued thousands of Gate Pass QRs and activated a SEAker Manning QR code for every participating agency.
What followed was the turnaround the event became known for. Seconds at the gate. Three seconds from a booth scan to a complete CV inside the agency’s system. And 7,453 people processed across two days without paper queues. Seafarers spent their time talking to employers, not filling out forms, and agencies left with applicant pipelines that were ready to work the next morning.
Secretary Cacdac applauds the technology
Among the distinguished guests was Department of Migrant Workers Secretary Hans Leo J. Cacdac. Observing applicants move from the gate to the agency booths without paper processing, Secretary Cacdac praised the fast turnaround of applicants and applauded the technology behind it.
The recognition carries weight. The DMW has made digitalization of OFW documentation and processes a priority, and BEACON 2026 showed what that direction looks like on the ground: a seafarer’s time respected, an agency’s pipeline organized, and a crowd of thousands managed with precision.
SEAker LIVE PULSE Analytics: the numbers behind the Beaconer’s Job Fair 2026
The two days of BEACON 2026 demonstrated how strong the demand for maritime employment remains among Filipino seafarers.
Seaker initially released 5,000 Job Fair Gate Pass QRs. Within three days of the announcement, every pass had been claimed. Responding to continued demand from seafarers who still wanted to take part, Seaker opened an additional 1,000 passes, which were again fully claimed. On Day 2, with long lines of seafarers still arriving, another 1,000 passeswere opened to accommodate the turnout.
The final count
According to SEAker LIVE PULSE Analytics, total attendance across both days reached 7,453 seafarers and visitors. Of these, 6,543 entered through SEAker Gate Pass QRs, while approximately 910 registered on site at the gate. Peak entry came between 1:00 PM and 2:00 PM.
Who came through the gates
The 6,543 digitally recorded attendees spanned an extraordinary 158 different ranks.
Vessel experience was equally broad, with Seaker detecting experience across 58 different vessel types.
What the data tells the industry
The figures reveal more than attendance. Cadets and aspiring seafarers who have never been onboard together account for 2,611 attendees, roughly two in every five digital entrants. That is a clear signal of how many young Filipinos are waiting for their first berth, and a reminder that shipboard training capacity remains one of the industry’s most pressing questions.
At the same time, 1,365 Able Bodied Seamen, about one in five entrants, came looking for their next contract, alongside deep pools of cruise, general cargo and bulk experience. For manning agencies, this is a qualified pipeline measured in exact numbers rather than impressions.
Events no longer have to rely on estimates
What began with 5,000 QR passes became a two day gathering of 7,453 people. Beyond the numbers, LIVE PULSE showed something more important: maritime events no longer need to run on guesswork.
From QR issuance and actual gate scans to rank distribution, vessel experience, attendance patterns and live gate activity, Seaker turns an event crowd into maritime intelligence the moment it happens. Organizers see where to add capacity. Agencies see who is available. Policymakers see the real shape of the workforce.
7,453 total attendees
6,543 SEAker Gate Pass attendees
910 on site registrations
158 ranks
58 vessel types
One live maritime pulse
This is what happens when technology does more than register people. It helps the industry understand the maritime community as it moves, connects and searches for opportunity.
Looking ahead
Seaker served as the Specialized Technology Partner of BEACON 2026, and the partnership continues into 2027. The model proven at BEACON 2026, paperless entry, instant CV delivery and live analytics, is now ready for every maritime event, school and agency in the country.
SEAker LIVE PULSE Analytics. Turning maritime participation into actionable intelligence.
This press release has also been published on VRITIMES