The conference committee was chaired by Dr Richard Spinrad, assistant administrator for NOAA Research, who with his team of leading experts did a great job in putting together a very interesting programme around the conference theme of ‘Technology in Service of Society’. The conference committee had deliberately looked for society-related aspects like Ocean Resource Management, Hazard Warning (Tsunamis, Hurricanes), Marine Mammals etc. to introduce the importance of oceanology for the needs of our society.

In his opening speech Dr Spinrad highlighted the need for all kinds of integration, from organisational to equipment, of users and developers of coastal and open-ocean measurements. In his keynote address, Professor Ed Hill, director of the National Oceanographic Centre, Southampton, UK, emphasised the need to know more about the earth’s fundamental processes, the ocean being key to these. Also vital was to try to assess what would happen next, which meant sustained observation and better predictive capability to reduce uncertainties. His third point of emphasis was how we should live with the consequences of unprecedented change, which entailed both negative impacts and new opportunities.

The conference included more than forty-five presentations, grouped in sessions, with themes such as Ocean Resource Management, Natural Hazards, Security & Safety, and Positioning & Navigation.

Conference abstracts are available online at www.oi06.com and the Exhibition Catalogue can be ordered from the same website for the price of £35.00.

Associated Meetings
A total of twenty-five associated meetings were scheduled around this OI, some even starting a day earlier. Some meeting programmes themselves comprised a two-day conference, with many interesting papers and discussions. Examples were the AGI Marine and Coastal zone GIS conference; SUT, with the theme ‘Diving for Science and Archaeology’; ICE, with the theme ‘Emerging Technologies for Monitoring the Coastal Zone’; the Inland/Inshore Diving Conference (IIDC); and a COBO workshop on ‘The use of autonomous instruments in shelf sea zones’. Most meetings were well attended, sometimes leaving only standing room at the back.

This extensive associated programme of meetings was welcomed by participants as being an efficient way of participating in the conferences, meet contacts and colleagues, and visit the exhibition(s). These meetings also enabled visitors to attend sessions from other disciplines than their own, enhancing the cross-fertilisation of ideas between various disciplines.

Alongside the main exhibition, a second, Spill’06, was held in association with the Interspill 2006 Conference, focusing on oil-spill response technology. See the OI06 website for more information on the Associated Meeting Programme.

The Exhibition
More than 580 representatives had exhibition stands, with some national pavilions belonging to countries including Canada, France, Germany and The Netherlands. OI thus provided a showcase for the latest technological equipment and systems in both oceanography and hydrography. This technology being the basis for better understanding the ocean and its processes, a lot of the equipment has much to offer the hydrographic surveyor too. Equipment and systems on display included those for current measurement and bottom classification: the latest Synthetic Aperture Sonar (SAS) and 3D Chirp profiling systems, as well as various MBES-systems and airborne laser systems. ROVs and AUVs, from small to large, showed the developments in this sector: technological progress in reducing the size of sensors makes possible smaller ROVs and AUVs, thereby rendering them not only easier to handle but also suitable for new applications.

Exhibitors were almost unanimous in their opinion it had been a good and commercially successful show, with many interesting contacts and feedback from clients.

The Ships
The location of ExCeL next to the Royal Victoria Dock enabled the visiting ships, twelve in total, to form an integral part of the event; they almost could secure their ropes to the exhibition stands! The ‘working ships’ ranged from large to small. There was the Arca, a modern Dutch oil recovery-and-research vessel with extended hydrographic capabilities, the Polish Navy survey ship ORP Heweliusz, and smaller vessels like the Verifier from PLA Hydrographic Service, operating in her home waters, the Spirit from the Port of Rotterdam, and the road-transportable Aquatech. The smallest of all was the tiny (length 2mtrs) Sea, a remote surface-survey vessel equipped with a SWATHplus-H system and CodaOctopus F180 for positioning, attitude and heading.

The water of the Royal Victoria Dock was ‘sailed thin’ by all the smaller vessels giving live demonstrations of their installed equipment. Even the bigger, multi-purpose Sara Maatje IX, with extra equipment installed especially for OI, carried out demos in the Dock, while from the quay live ROV demonstrations took place.

In short
Exhibitors, participants and visitors were all very satisfied with this OI06, the biggest ever, shortened this year to three days instead of the previous norm of four. The event attracted a record number of 7,553 attendees.

A well-received OI Show Daily, carrying reports on special events as well as the day’s conference programme, was produced and distributed by GITC, publisher of Hydro INTERNATIONAL. These daily papers are to be posted on the OI06 website (www.oi06.com). We already look forward to the 2008 event and hope to meet you all there again.