The venue was the spacious and well laid-out Hynes Convention Center in downtown Boston. The convention centre is close to the airport and train station and is well served by Boston’s MTBA, the oldest public transportation system in the United States. The first day was devoted to workshops and tutorials, a plenary session and the opening of the exhibition. Technical sessions began on the second day. There were a total of 337 technical presentations scheduled in ten parallel sessions. Total attendance was recorded at 2,184, and the exhibition featured 165 companies and organisations occupying 228 stands.



The conference began on Monday with a full slate of half-day and full-day workshops (free) and tutorials (extra charge). Hydrographic topics were well represented in both the workshops and tutorials, with a workshop devoted to real-time current measurements from Coast Guard navigation buoys, and tutorials on synthetic aperture sonar for seabed imaging and acoustic seabed classification, among other subjects. The technical programme began formally on Tuesday with a plenary session on Ocean Observing Systems, and then moved on to the multiple concurrent sessions typical of the Oceans Conference series. While the sessions covered a very wide range of ocean technology topics, there were numerous sessions of particular interest to hydrographers.



For military hydrographers there were sessions on Buried and Proud Objects/Littoral Applications and Electromagnetic and Magnetic Sensing of mines and unexploded ordnance. Other hydrography-
related sessions covered seafloor characterisation and sonar calibration, subjects gaining importance as hydrographers begin to carry out surveys for marine ecosystem management. Reflecting much of the activity in the ocean technology field these days, the most extensive line-up of technical sessions was devoted to ocean-observing systems and AUV developments. Regular attendees at Oceans conferences noted in particular the advances in AUV technology since the previous conference.



The Oceans event has always featured a large exhibition floor and Oceans 2006 was no different. A spacious hall of the convention centre easily accommodated an extensive line-up of ocean industries and organisations. The conference provided floor-wide wireless access and a free internet café, with numerous PCs available for conference participants. Another interesting feature of the exhibition hall was the accessibility of a collection of underwater vehicles including ROVs, AUVs and towfish.



The conference as a whole, including the exhibition hall, had a strongly international flavour. Canada, the conference 'Platinum Partner', was particularly well represented, with an extensive pavilion area covering almost 20% of the exhibition floor and representing that nation's ocean provinces, industries and agencies.



The exhibition hall was also the site of an extensive student poster presentation. The conference provided travel and expenses and free conference registration to all students entering papers in the student poster programme, so that Oceans 2006 had made a concerted and successful effort to involve students in the conference. Thirty student posters were presented and the official conference figures showed a total of 124 students attending.



Of course, the conference also included a line-up of social events. A welcoming reception began things on Monday evening, an exhibitor's reception was held in the exhib-ition area on Tuesday evening. And Wednesday evening featured a Canadian-sponsored reception and the gala banquet, both held at the superb Boston Museum of Science.