Subsea expo 2021 to go ahead - with physical event
Industry body Subea hope their exhibition and conference - which will look at the theme of harnessing the blue economy - can go ahead in person next February, it would be one of the first events of it's scale to return post-pandemic.
Subsea's 2021 expo is set to be one of the first post-pandemic, large scale physical events back on the international calendar. Instead of the virtual option the industry has become so used to this year.
The exhibition and conference is set to be held at P&J Live in Aberdeen from 23-25 February next year. Plans are in place for if it is not possible for a in-person event, but Subsea UK Chief Executive Neil Gordon told Northsound he is hopeful and that there is a "real appetite" for physical meetings instead of video calls and conferences.
Mr Gordon said:
“Interest in next year’s event is on the increase and it’s clear there is an appetite for a return to real, rather than virtual, events. Our industry’s main sector – oil and gas – has taken a double blow with coronavirus and the collapse in commodity price but, with the race to achieve net-zero, a green recovery on the horizon, including hydrogen and CCUS, coupled with oceans of opportunity in the blue economy, we are sensing renewed optimism. This augers well for 2021 and we anticipate a more buoyant mood at next year’s Subsea Expo.”
The theme for the 2021 edition of the event is 'Oceans of opportunity - harnessing the Blue Economy' as the industry looks at how they can captalise on a piece of the sector which is forecast to be worth $3 Trillion in the next ten years.
Mr Gordon said ahead of the expo's 16th year:
The underwater engineering industry currently generates annual revenues of £7.8billion and a large slice of that still comes from the oil and gas sector. However, as the industry extends its reach into offshore wind, defence, ocean and marine science and aquaculture, there is the opportunity to grow global marketshare of what’s now known as the blue economy or ocean economy."
“This is good news for the subsea industry whose underwater engineering capabilities, honed in North Sea oil and gas and increasingly in demand in offshore wind, are eminently transferrable to defence, ocean science, aquaculture and deep sea mining.”
Usually the event attracts around 200 exhibitors and almost 7,000 delegates from around the world - and more than a third of the floorspace for 2021 has been booked already.