Oceanology International 2010 Sets Visitor Record

Oceanology International 2010, the global forum for the ocean science and marine technology community saw record-breaking attendance when it was held at London’s ExCeL last week. Over the three days 6921 people from 75 countries attended Oceanology International (a 4% increase on the 6643 who attended in 2008), filling the conference halls and ensuring busy stands and aisles throughout the exhibition with its 500+ exhibiting companies, visiting the vessels moored alongside the exhibition hall, and benefiting from the networking events.

“There was a splendid buzz in the exhibition hall right through the three days,” says Event Manager, James Coleman. “With 38.42% of all attendees coming from overseas, and 62.9% of our 537 exhibitors from over 30 overseas countries we can rightfully claim to be a global forum. This year was certainly a year of records – more exhibitors than ever before filling an exhibition that was over 7% larger than the previous one held in 2008; a world-class conference with day-long sessions on ocean observation and forecasting; navigation and positioning; hydrography/geophysics; marine environment; and geotechnics; and a special New Scientist session on offshore renewables.

“We would like to thank the Society for Underwater Technology and our five specialist committees for their hard work in organising highly relevant and fascinating conference streams, and look forward to working with them again in the lead up to Oceanology International 2012 which will be held at ExCeL 13^th to 15th March 2012.

“Post-show comments from exhibitors are fulsome in their praise. “We can’t afford to rest on our laurels and look forward to working with all elements of the marine science and ocean technology community to ensure that Oceanology International 2012 not only matches, but exceeds expectations,” adds James Coleman.

Deserved awards

The Awards Ceremony held on opening day saw six awards made with the richly deserved award of the Oceanology International Lifetime Achievement Award being made to Ian Gallett of the Society for Underwater Technology.  Matthew Quartley, Managing Director of Valeport Limited won the Association of Marine Scientific Industries (AMSI) Business Person of the Year Award; the Alan Greig Memorial Prize for Outstanding Contribution to Commercial Operational Oceanography 2010 was awarded to Rhoderick Powell, Metocean Advisor, AGIP KCO; and The Bob Barton Memorial Award which aims to recognise excellence in writing and reporting on marine science, engineering and technology was awarded to Phil McKenna, who is based in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

The BP Postgraduate award for best MSc thesis for the academic year 2008-09 in the fields of Offshore and Subsea Engineering and Technology was awarded to Ani Bede Chinedu from the University of Aberdeen for his thesis entitled ‘Analysis of Large Diameter Catenary Risers for Oil Production in Moderate Water Depths’; and Benjamin Loveday from the University of Southampton won the Fugro GEOS Award for best MSc thesis for the academic year 2008-09 in Meteorology, Physical Oceanography or Applied Oceanography was awarded to for his thesis ‘Using Data from Autonomous Underwater Gliders to Assess the Performance of Ocean Forecast Models in the Northwest Mediterranean Sea’.  Both won cheques for GBP500.

Attendees at Oceanology International 2010 came from Australia, Austria, Azerbaijan, Belgium, Bermuda, Brazil, British Virgin Islands, Cameroon, Canada, Chile, China, Croatia, Cyprus, Denmark, Egypt, Estonia, Faroe Islands, Finland, France, Gabon, Germany, Ghana, Greece, Hong Kong, Iceland, India, Indonesia, Ireland, Isle of Man, Israel, Italy, Kazakhstan, Korea (South), Kuwait, Latvia, Libya, Lithuania, Japan, Jersey, Malaysia, Malta, Mauritius, Mexico, Monaco, Morocco, Netherlands, New Zealand, Nicaragua, Nigeria, Norway, Oman, Pakistan, Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Qatar, Romania, Russian Federation, Saudi Arabia, Seychelles, Sierra Leone, Singapore, Slovenia, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan, Tunisia, Turkey, UAE, Ukraine, UK, USA and Vietnam.