Much of the business agenda concentrated on the requirement to change constitutional matters of the organisation that are enshrined in its Convention and associated Regulations. This has proved to be very difficult and in particular the procedures to amend the Convention have so far proved insurmountable. While various specific changes were proposed during the Conference, most were referred to a Strategic Planning Working Group, which was given the task of studying the various matters and reporting them at an Extraordinary Conference which was scheduled for 2004. One proposal put forward of considerable interest, was to change the requirements for candidates for Directors, to be less demanding in terms of practical marine experience. This is not the first time this has been raised at Conferences but once again it was clear that the necessary majority was not available to make the change and the proposal was withdrawn. Overall, the business was handled in a most capable way by the Norwegian President of the Conference, Commander Froede Klepsvik.
Perhaps the most interesting part of the business was the election of the new Directing Committee, that will take office in September. As noted in our previous issue there were a number of candidates for three slots - the President and two Directors. In the end there were ten candidates. In order for the Member States’ representatives to get to know the candidates during the brief period of the Conferences many receptions were held, requiring the strongest constitution! Most of these were held in the fine I.H.Bureau premises and some on the survey ships in the harbour. The election process itself, which is rather time consuming, resulted in Rear Admiral Alexandros Maratos (Greece) being elected President, Rear Admiral Kenneth Barbour (USA) elected as Director I and Captain Hugo Gorziglia (Chile) elected as Director II.
The Conferences is a fine opportunity for commercial companies producing software, hardware and various systems for hydrography and oceanography, to get exposed to the leaders of the government hydrographic community. Accordingly space is made available for a commercial exhibition. Unfortunately the rather convoluted design of the new Grimaldi Forum did not encourage delegates to visit the exhibits, although those who took the trouble were rewarded by seeing some of the most up to date technology. The new fast track, shorter conference arrangements also made it difficult for delegates to get away from the business meetings and visit the exhibition. Although some exhibitors spoke favourably of the contacts made, it seems likely that organisers of future conferences will have to make improvements to encourage delegates to mingle more with the commercial companies.
Again, following previous practices, there was an exhibition of charts by Member States. This included both paper and electronic charts. While most of the exhibits of the work of individual Hydrographic Offices occupied only one or two panels, the UK and USA had very major exhibits showing off their range of wares. Nevertheless, while these two major displays were most impressive, a panel of judges decided that it should be the Italian display that should receive the prize for best exhibit.
Although the Conference itself has been abbreviated to a short five days, there were a number of meetings, both official and unofficial held on the side and extending into the weekends on both ends of the official Conference.