Held at the National Oceanography Centre (NOC) in Southampton from 27th to 29th March 2007, the event attracted a total of 117 exhibitors, close to a hundred registered delegates and 1,494 visitors from 38 countries. Positive feedback came from both exhibitors and visitors.

OB FORUM 2007
The exhibition being modest in size meant that not all aspects of ocean business were covered as well as at bigger events such as OI. But small can have its advantages: better contact with clients, while the manufacturers also mentioned the quality of the visitors. The exhibition was held in a rigid tent on the waterfront of the NOC, so manufacturers not only had their equipment on display on their stands but also used the available ‘wet’ facilities.

The Dock
Three vessels, including the NOC research catamaran Callista, sailed a busy schedule due to the more than expected interest, with demonstrations of various equipment in the Empress Dock and adjacent waters. This created a perfect opportunity, and a very efficient one, for visitors to compare capabilities of products from participating manufacturers under the same circumstances. The dockside also offered live demonstrations of equipment suitable for launch from the quay, like AUVs, water-monitoring systems and handheld sonar systems. The fine spring weather contributed to the success of these demonstrations and attendance at them. Imagine standing comfortably in the sun and watching on a screen what is happening down below in the icy cold water! The NOC test tank was used to demonstrate water-sampling sensors, underwater communication equipment and small ROVs.

Classroom Sessions
More than 150 hours of free classroom sessions were held in NOC accommodation. Manufacturers used these to hold small user conferences or tell more about their products. The ‘Brighton atmosphere’ was back.

Next Event
Although there was a general welcome for this newcomer to the survey industry calendar, everyone now carries a big workload and can hardly spare the time to exhibit and attend a new conference/exhibition. Some fears were also expressed that the success of this event might eventually dilute OI in London. The fact of having a half-time event stationed in between the biennial OI was, however, seen as a positive opportunity for meeting clients and agents and speaking more frequently with other users. The modest size of the event also gave manufacturers more time for their visitors. Due to the success of this first event we will see the second Ocean Business Forum and Offshore Survey held at the same location on 31st March to 2nd April 2009. Many exhibitors have already booked their stand.


OS CONFERENCE 2007
Almost a hundred delegates from sixteen countries covering Europe, the Middle East, North America and SE Asia registered to attend the first Offshore Survey Conference held at the UK National OceanographyCentre in Southampton on 27th and 28th March 2007. Delegates listened to a wide range of papers from a panel of 21 distinguished speakers addressing topics of current concern in the offshore survey industry and announcing new technologies and recent innovative offshore projects.

John Westwood delivered a very positive keynote address in which he reviewed prospects in the global energy industry. Worldwide energy demand will increase by 71% to 118 million b/d (barrels [of oil] per day) by 2030 and most supplies will come from deep waters. This growth, he said, and the move towards subsea processing would drive greater demand for survey personnel and services.

Tim Jackson of BP addressed the current severe shortage of skilled personnel in the offshore survey sector. He illustrated dramatically how important was the task of survey throughout the cradle-to-grave life of all offshore developments. Dave Whitcombe of Shell spoke of how to recruit, train and retain skilled personnel, illustrating a number of such initiatives being taken both within the survey sector and at higher education level to overcome the shortage of personnel. A number of delegates had volunteered to assist in the working group and in raising the awareness of students at several levels of education regarding the challenging andrewarding career offered by offshore survey. One important advance is the IHO-FIG accredited course in Hydrographic Surveying managed by Skilltrade BV in the Netherlands, which opens up formal qualifications in Hydrographic Survey at technician as well as university graduate level.

The programme included papers on the application of GPS techniques in tidal modelling from Gardline Geosurvey, metrology in deepwater developments from Geo –Century, subsea acoustic positioning –developments and experience from Sonardyne, Kongsberg, Sonsub and Acergy, and new bathymetric Lidar technology from Admiralty Coastal Surveys. ASV presented underwater sensor platforms, with the company’s new semi-sub vehicle, and Chris Mott of Fugro Survey showed some extraordinary multi-beam sonar images of a huge mud volcano taken by one of its deepwater AUVs. CARIS and SRD ably represented the field of data processing and visualisation.

There were speakers from the non-energy survey sectors: Nick Tasker of the UK Hydrographic Office updated delegates on the significant expansion of its services and data products. John Dillon-Leetch, deputy hydrographer of the Port of London Authority, presented enlightening data from a number of survey projects which showed the expanding capabilities of the PLA.
Announcement of the winner of the OS07 Best Presentation Award is pending final counting of delegates’ feedback forms. The organisers advise that the high quality of all the presentations is likely to produce a very close result, to be reported as soon as the final count is completed. The delegates also enjoyed meeting colleagues, seeing technologies and attending on-water demonstrations at the Ocean Business Event being held alongside, and there was a much-enjoyed social programme to round off the three-day event. Overall, this first conference dedicated to Offshore Survey was considered a very successful start and positive feedback has already set the scene for the next Offshore Survey Conference in 2009.

Conference proceedings can be ordered from Intelligent Exhibitions Ltd (Web reference 1) for the price of £35 (US$62), plus VAT and postage.