World Ocean Forum

Oceanology International 2004 is scheduled for the second time in London for 16th-19th March. Slated for London’s spacious Exhibition Centre (ExCeL) in the Docklands, hard by the Thames and the Royal Victoria Dock, the exhibition fielded by Spearhead Exhibitions Ltd already boasts some three hundred exhibitors who have signed up and who hail from more than fifteen countries. More than six thousand people, including visitors from sixty countries and more than four hundred students from UK universities attended OI London 2002. Several associated meetings have already been booked to run alongside the exhibition. Newest additions are the Inland Inshore Diving Conference (IIDC) for one day on Thursday, 18th March. IIDC will also feature an icebreaker reception the night before and an awards luncheon, also on Thursday, featuring a Diving Contractors Award, a new Innovative Technique/Equipment Award, the Individual Diver of the Year Award, and the Scientific/Archaeological Award. Conference chair John Bevan, editor of Underwater Contractor International magazine, will select a special awards committee. The event is being organised in conjunction with the Association of Diving Contractors (ADC). Another recent addition is the ROV/UUV technology conference, jointly organised by Spearhead, the Institute of Marine Engineering, Science & Technology (IMarEST), and the Society for Underwater Technology, which will field ‘Advances in Technology in Underwater Vehicles’ (ATUV). Dr Jonathan Evans (Heriot Watt University, Edinburgh) chairs this two-day international conference scheduled for 16th-17th March in parallel with OI London.