Imaging our future in DenverDean Clark, TLE Editor As this issue of TLE heads to press, about six weeks before opening day, all standard measurements indicate another supremely successful SEG convention will take place in Denver on 17–22 October 2010 under its official nomenclature, the International Exposition and 80th Annual Meeting. Figures supplied by Steve Emery, senior manager of SEG's Meetings Department, in several key categories were striking, particularly in comparison with the 2009 event in Houston, the hub of the geophysical industry where such numbers are always at the maximum of the standard deviation.
The theme for the 2010 meeting is "Imaging our Future" which the Steering Committee, according to General Chairman Nancy House, "chose from a number of excellent options because it reflects the optimism and excitement we feel for the upcoming meeting. Professionals in the oil and gas industry in Denver and the Rocky Mountain region have led the way, over the past few years, in developing and implementing technology to locate and develop unconventional resources. Geophysical technology has evolved to highlight areas with natural fracturing and measure changes in a reservoir over time, reducing the risks of developing resources and calculating the size of the prize. The convention will showcase that technology for geophysical and nongeophysical professionals, as well as showcase the beauty and vibrancy of the Mile High City." Although Sunday, 17 October, is the official start of the meeting, associated events will actually begin two days earlier, on Friday, 15 October, with the 2010 SEG/EAGE Distinguished Instructor Short Course "Geophysics under stress: Geomechanical applications of seismic and borehole acoustic waves" taught by Colin Sayers, and the first day of the three-day SEG/ExxonMobil Student Education Program. The annual SEG Golf Tournament and the first of two consecutive days of Continuing Education Courses will be held on Saturday, 16 October. Sunday, 17 October, will be busier than usual because of an extra meeting, scheduled to begin at 10 a.m., of the Council for an informal discussion on the proposed major revisions to SEG's Constitution and Bylaws. The official meeting of the Council will begin at 1 p.m. The annual Honors and Awards Program, where SEG formally recognizes outstanding achievement in science, service, and business, will begin at 4 p.m. and will be immediately followed by the Presidential Address. Doors will open to the first of the many popular social events, the Icebreaker/Expo Preview, at 6 p.m. This is the perfect opportunity to meet exhibitors, map out a plan to visit companies, and renew acquaintances in a casual setting. The Icebreaker will feature a buffet of complimentary hors d'oeuvres, cash bars, and entertainment. The Icebreaker will close at 8 p.m., to allow delegates to have dinner at one of Denver's many outstanding restaurants. Attendance at the Icebreaker is included in all full-delegate and Spouse Program registrations. Others can buy separate tickets for the event. The cost is US $60.
"Recent advances in geophysics, completion technology, resource-play economics, and development strategies have identified large natural gas resources in North America. The trend is spreading to all parts of the globe," House said. "The remaining challenges are political and environmental. The forum will address how unconventional tight gas/shale gas represents a huge potential worldwide resource but the industry must appreciate and appropriately address these political and environmental issues in order to achieve the maximum benefit from it." The Technical Program Committee, chaired by Stewart Levin, received the second-largest number of submissions ever and accepted nearly 845 abstracts for oral and poster presentation. SEG records indicate this number, five more presentations than at Houston last year, is the largest ever for an SEG Annual Meeting. These presentations of cutting-edge geophysical theory and technology have been distributed over 116 sessions. The oral presentations will occupy 13 rooms, and the posters will be displayed in adjacent hallways, making the shift from one type of presentation to the other much more convenient than in the past. "This year's rich Technical Program has something for everyone," Levin said. "Spacious session rooms have been allocated for hot topics such as reverse time migration, full wave inversion, land and marine acquisition, and controlled source electromagnetics. Interpretation and reservoir characterization case histories reflect the intertwined relationships of geophysical, geological, and engineering technologies. The number of abstracts submitted this year was just shy of the all-time record, and their quality was so impressive that, despite adding another session room, a few truly fine abstracts had to be left out of the final program.
This year's Technical Program Committee consisted of 40 volunteers, and they were instructed to abandon the longstanding but unwritten "ok for a poster" policy. "If the reviews of a submitted abstract said it was not particularly new or interesting but ok for a poster, it was not accepted," Levin said. "All abstracts had to stand on their own merits." Another new emphasis of this year's approval process was strict enforcement of SEG policies regarding proper formatting of the abstracts. "Over 400 accepted abstracts were sent back to the lead author to correct violations of the SEG requirements," Levin said. "None were rejected because of those flaws, but we've put the geophysical community on notice that SEG is serious about providing publications that have a consistent and professional appearance that will benefit the authors and the profession in general." The oral presentations will begin at 1:30 p.m. Monday, 18 October, and continue through noon Thursday, 21 October. Poster presentations will be made Monday-Wednesday. Nine special sessions have been organized to address "hot" topics:
The entire Technical Program can be viewed at http://www.seg.org/am/techprog. The Technical Program will again be augmented by Technical Luncheons (Gravity and Magnetics, Development and Production, and Mining and Geothermal) and a Dinner/ Reception (Near-Surface Geophysics Section) on 19–20 October, and 16 postconvention workshops on 21–22 October. The reception sponsored by the Near-Surface Geophysics Section is free for NSG members. All luncheons and workshops have additional registration fees. More information is available at http://www.seg.org/am/techprog. Obviously, delegates can physically attend only a few presentations in the Technical Program. However, for the first time this year, they will be able to attend many others via a DVD (which will consist of audio recordings synchronized with the slides) of about 150 of the oral presentations. The DVD will be available 6–8 weeks after the meeting. This year's speaker in the Applied Science Education Program is Peter Cervelli of the U.S. Geological Survey and the topic will be "The Yellowstone volcano: Using Geophysics to Separate Fact from Fiction." The talk is free for all delegates. The exposition floor will again be the world's premiere showplace for state-of-the-art geophysical instrumentation and technology, a distinction that has been unrivalled for decades. This year the early numbers are slightly behind 2009 but that was a Houston convention where the exhibition is always larger than in other venues (30% larger than in 2008). More relevant data is that the numbers for 2010 are well ahead of projections (additional exhibit space has had to be requested, twice, in the Colorado Convention Center). As usual, booths from most prominent university consortia, which are responsible for much important geophysical research, will occupy part of the exhibit floor as will the 15th International Showcase where national oil companies, energy ministries, and technical institutes from around the world will demonstrate the latest E&P opportunities in their countries. The Wednesday night (20 October) social event will be "An Evening of Discovery" at the Denver Art Museum. Thanks to sponsorship by Apache, attendees will be able to see the spectacular exhibit "Tutankhamun: The golden king & the great pharaohs." Note that attendance at this event is not included in registration. The cost is US $20 for registered delegates and US $60 for guests. Tickets to the Tutankhamun exhibit are complimentary but limited. Transporation to the museum will be provided from all convention hotels. The Spouse Program has been augmented this year with some "gender-neutral activities." The traditional hospitality suite and luncheons will still be featured but the tours will include visits to a gold mine and the famous MillerCoors Brewery in Golden. More information and forms can be found at http://meeting.seg.org/ register/. No registration will be processed without payment. |
"From the outset, my priorities included making posters first-class citizens in the Technical Program. The SEG staff was able to place the poster areas proximate to the oral session rooms rather than in a distant, noisy location on the exhibition floor. To encourage poster submissions, I set aside a poster-only area to highlight the many roles geophysics has to play in addressing the 'Challenges of today and tomorrow.' To reinforce this theme, I asked potential poster presenters to check off which, of almost a dozen, specific challenges their technology addressed." Terms of Use Privacy Notice Image Credits Site Feedback Contact Us HelpGeophysics Marketplace
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