Meeting all the right connections
Held at the newly renovated Royal Sonesta Houston Galleria Hotel, the busy event was well-attended by visitors who enjoyed walking the exhibition floor and speaking with knowledgeable exhibitors. Visitors and exhibitors alike were able to network and obtain quality leads. In total, approximately 30 companies exhibited as part of the event. Also taking place on the first day in the heart of the Expo Floor during the Welcome Reception, sponsored by the International Titanium Association (ITA), was the interactive learning workshop Managing an Aging Workforce, which guided the audience through the different types of training methodologies required for training a constantly changing workforce.
Learning something new
The conference itself, which ran concurrently with the exhibition, began each day with keynote lectures given by representatives from The Equity Engineering Group, Albemarle Corporation, Midland Engineering, Saudi Aramco and MRC Global. Conference sessions were filled with interested delegates who challenged the speakers with educated and thoughtful questions and many technically in-depth discussions followed. It was fantastic to see industry professionals from all over the world sharing ideas and collaborating on important industry topics such as risk-based inspection (RBI), asset integrity, non-metallics & fibre-reinforced polymers (FRP) and materials & corrosion resistant alloys. In total there were 12 different Presentation Sessionswith approximately 47 individual presentations, including a full track on Day 1 presented by the International Titanium Association (ITA) entitled Asset Life Extension with Titanium.
A big thank you
The Managing Aging Plants USA team would like to thank the Conference Chairman, Mr. Kenneth Kirkham, The Equity Engineering Group as well as the steering committee and The Materials Technology Institute (MTI) for all their hard work in creating a relevant and educational conference program.