SubOptic 2007
By Alan Robinson, President of SubOptic 2007
We are now just one year away from the launch of SubOptic 2007 to be held at the Inner Harbour in Baltimore, Maryland, USA. Under the careful hosting of Tyco, plans are now well advanced for the conference and exhibition. The event will be from 14th to 17th May 2007 and will be held at the Baltimore Marriott Waterfront Hotel with accommodation, exhibition, hospitality rooms and conference facilities all under one roof. To ensure we maintain tradition, Baltimore has a number of Irish pubs, but in keeping with a centralised venue, we have made sure that the James Joyce hostelry is just around the corner from the hotel entrance! Since we announced SubOptic 2007 at Monaco, I have had, and heard, a number of questions concerning Baltimore. Why Baltimore…….? Well, we took your
feedback after Monaco and tried to develop a more compact and cost effective event, in a marine environment, but with good facilities, access and transport. Baltimore is on the Patapsco River just off Chesapeake Bay. It is serviced by three airports, namely Baltimore International, Ronald Reagan Washington National and Dulles International. It has good railway connections to Washington and along the East Coast of the USA. It is renowned for its rich history and strong maritime character offering some of the finest restaurants and gastronomic delights, including the world famous, succulent sweet crab and fresh seafood. In short, it is an ideal conference venue with every attribute for a community that relies upon getting together every three years to exchange ideas and information and debate issues. And at the end of every full day, there will be a range of social events and functions designed to stimulate the professional and social networks which are
such an important element of every SubOptic. And finally, Inner Harbour is a safe area. It has been developed as one of the leading tourist attractions on the North East Coast and has the wonderful benefit to be a short ride from Washington D.C, which has limitless galleries, museums, and exhibitions. In short, Baltimore is “the” conference venue. SubOptic held its first conference in Versailles in France in 1986. It was the brainchild of Jean Devos, Jean Godeluck and the late Emanuel Blanc, all of Submarcom. Its formula is one of simplicity – “by the industry and for the industry”. It is a non profit organisation, and the conference is hosted by a member of the Executive Committee on a three (used to be four) year rotational basis. The host is responsible for the conference venue, organisation, programme and accommodation. The key element of the host’s capability is the Programme Committee which is chaired by a member of their organisation and is responsible for the entire content of the conference agenda. Dave Robles of Tyco, who is based in their Madrid office, has this privilege for 2007. The key ingredients are, of course, the papers (submitted under six allied content headings), the “round table” debates and of course the key note speakers. A crucial element of the programme is the poster session, which 16