Robert Brelsford
Downstream Technology Editor
These days, the business of oil and gas conferencing is big. And by big, of course, this editor means financially as well as physically. With growing US shale production poised only to continue to rise, conferences have proved a boon for service companies and suppliers to peddle their latest and greatest wares to upstream operators, would-be producers, and refiners wary of processing new breeds of feedstock.
Given the relatively still-new frontier of current and future shale development, event companies and suppliers are cashing in big time on the possibility of uncertainty, packing hotel ballrooms and city conference centers to the brim week after week.
Great for them, yes. But what about for the conference attendees forced to fork over often upwards of $2,000/person to attend an event so crowded—typically with mostly sales and marketing personnel—that, in the sea of countless faces pushing by and through, the chances of having any truly meaningful or insightful conversation is slim to none?
With so many events to choose from, it’s hard to sift the diamonds from the glass, to determine where it’s most beneficial to invest the attendance dollars to make off with the most knowledge profit.
In the downstream sector, this editor has found at least one diamond of an annual conference and training event, which is under way even as he pens this column. It’s called RefComm Galveston, which is hosted by the Refining Community, Bellingham, Wash.
Perfect size, place, content
There’s something to be said for finding a perfectly sized refining conference in a perfectly poised venue from which, in the near distance, one can glimpse the scattered heights of towering columns that form part of the Texas Gulf Coast refining network.
Now in its 19th year, the conference—which recently has taken place over a 5-day period in late April or early May at Moody Gardens Hotel on Galveston Island, Tex.—provides the immersive experience for attendees that other US downstream conferences no longer do.
For whatever reason, every other event company and industry association in the downstream space seems to think San Antonio, Tex., is the epicenter of conferencing bliss. Sure, San Antonio can be a nice tourist town, but it gets very old, very quickly. And nowhere in the city, no matter how high you are, can you really see the refining infrastructure on which the conferences are focused.
RefComm Galveston is a respite from the dry, dusty streets of southwest Texas, where one typically must race back and forth between two hotels that—even while owned by the same brand—are located across a busy avenue from each other. The RefComm Galveston conference locale offers a single location on the bay that literally looks out onto the very industrial creatures attendees have come to study. That in and of itself is a priceless and inspiring perk.
Most importantly, however, the conference’s intimate and thoughtfully chosen venue accommodates the interactive and intensive learning and networking activities offered to attendees, which (refreshingly!) are comprised of nearly an even split between both refinery operating personnel as well as service companies-suppliers. This breakdown naturally results in unparalleled (by any conferencing standard) content. Infrequent these days is it to find a conference where refinery operators address their specific problems and the solutions they’ve found to those problems. At RefComm Galveston, however, this is the regular and reliable form of knowledge sharing that has occurred every year since this editor began attending.
Flawless experience
Like diamonds, it’s rare to refer to a conference as perfect. Most events—at least, over time—experience or develop some sort of inclusion, feather, or blemish. That said, however, RefComm Galveston comes as near as it probably gets to US downstream conference perfection. Sure, it’d be nice to get out of the hotel meeting rooms and onto the water more than the event schedule allows, but the knowledge takeaway, every time, never fails to make up for those lost rays.
