One of the best ever events of its kind, this biennial conference and exhibition event – celebrating also its 45th anniversary (1969 – 2014) is now the talk of the town and the talk over and …under the oceans!
As Conference Chairman Professor Ralph Rayner put it: “at the time of the first Oceanology International, back in 1969, much of the ocean technology that we now take for granted was the stuff of science fiction, with few having the foresight to imagine just how far and how fast things would change. The ability to continuously monitor the oceans from space; to send AUVs to the ocean depths on multi month missions; to map large swaths of the ocean floor and the geology beneath it; to make long-term measurements of physical, chemical and biological variability; to recover data in near real-time from a diverse range of ocean sensors and to perform complex underwater operations with robotic machines are but a few examples.”
If you interpret the above to all intents and purposes you can see all aspects of daily life, such as health the environment, politics and geopolitics, food and stocks (fisheries), energy, education and training and all others being involved ending up also to conflict and the creation of jobs. If we use wisely this industry, if we respect the oceans without being greedy humans, in will be for the furthering and better world to live in!
The three day even 11-13 March covered unique themes in its various conference sessions such as the Ocean Observing Systems I and II, Underwater positioning and Metrology, Marine Renewables – Survey, Installation and Maintenance, Subsea Mining a new issue for the conference, Underwater Communication, Oil & Gas – operating in extreme environments, Maritime Security, Aquaculture – a new subject too and of course the expected Unmanned Underwater Vehicles Showcase as well as the Hydrography and Geophysics – offshore installations ending with the issue of Ballast Water a very important matter for all involved in the shipping industry and beyond.
Good to see the supporting organisations such as the SUT (The Society of Underwater Technology), IMarEST with a full force executives in their respective stand and beyond, IMCA, The Hydrographic Society, the SMI – The Society of Maritime Industries with a very pleased CEO John Murray and the Marine Technology Society; societies that you all view in this site, a great supporter of the under the sea world for the benefit of all!
Individual company stands from all over the world, National stands too made the exhibition hall at London’s ExCel more than an interesting space with the per square value of knowledge hitting the skies!
As a Greek I was pleased to see Greek companies too, as well as the Greek business and scientific names figuring as companies names et al… Castalia, Nymphea to name but a few.
Outside of the exhibition hall on the Royal Victoria Dock there was a vessel and waterside demonstration providing opportunities to see the technologies in action.
Already we have some news on the site from the event and some of the participating companies success and we will revert soon with a full account on the event, a great event organised by Reed Exhibitions, as well as that of Spillex which was running in parallel.
Lastly, an excellent Press Office supporting journalsist, delegates and members of the stands, well manned by Judith Patten and we also managed to have a small video, thanks to Camilla Bradshaw, the Events and Conference Manager of IMarEST: here we go:
