Amsterdam is one of the coolest cities in Europe. It's also the financial and cultural capital of the Netherlands. The city has beautiful and charming architecture, food from all over the world, lots to see and do, and very friendly people. It's no wonder that the EAGE chose to return to Amsterdam for the 71st EAGE Conference and Exhibition!
Though Amsterdam has over 1 million bikes with more than 15,000 km of bicycle lanes, over 100 km of canals with various ferries, a 4-line metro, and 9 train stations, the 18-line tram system proved to be the most popular mode of transport, as most of the 4,000 EAGE delegates packed the trams headed to and from the RAI Congress Centre during exhibition commuting hours.
 Inside the RAI Congress Centre, ION's booth was situated in the most prominent location, providing a great focal point for all delegates visiting the exhibition. On the ION stand, as always, we offered hospitality throughout the day, encouraging people to stop by for gourmet coffees in the early part of the day and to visit again in the afternoon for our lively happy hour. Time on the ION stand always provides an ideal and enjoyable networking opportunity.
In spite of the current economic climate, the number of delegates in attendance for the conference was only slightly down from previous years, and ION remained busy with many customer presentations and meetings during the show.
Our marine folks were hard at work demonstrating the Intelligent Acquisition [IA] technology to key oil & gas companies and contractors. The Marine Technology Suite, located at the Hotel Okura, was fully booked throughout the show. On the marine product side, we were excited to announce that PGS had signed an agreement with Concept Systems to provide Acquisition Optimization Services for all its repeat, time-lapse (4D) seismic surveys in 2009.
ION's land guys were wrapped up in demonstrating the whole range of ION land technologies. Contractors and oil & gas companies had the opportunity to hear product updates on FireFly, Scorpion, ARIES and Source products in private sessions, also held at the lovely Hotel Okura.
The Next Generation Solutions Group presented results from the Daquing full-wave case study conducted in China, which attracted a lot of interest.
Geophysicists from our GX Technology imaging group were available onsite to demonstrate cases and data examples representing a whole spectrum of processing techniques, including Beam Migration. Technical papers on Sub-basalt Imaging in the NE Atlantic Margin, Multi-Azimuth Sub-basalt Imaging in the Tulipan Area, and a case study from India were presented by GXT experts. GXT also hosted a one-day short course on Velocity Model Building Techniques with a concentration on an intuitive understanding of the principles, demonstrating them via case histories.
ION's SPAN experts showed our comprehensive data library to interested customers utilizing one of the highlights of this year's EAGE - our newly launched Interactive Digital Kiosk. The kiosk features the "ION Channel Guide", which provided visitors with the opportunity to browse through our entire range of technologies, success stories, and data samples. The kiosk is designed for visitors to either browse at their own leisure or to be guided through by an ION staff member.
 The overall impression amongst ION personnel was that, despite the decreased number of delegates registered for the EAGE, the customers who attended the show were of real value to the company with a genuine interest in our technologies. The conference also provided a great opportunity for more informal networking and, when night fell on the many restaurants, bars, and coffee shops of Amsterdam, we treated our customers to a number of private dinners where good times were had by all!
With Amsterdam behind us, we are looking forward to welcoming you at the next EAGE event in Barcelona in 2010. Viva España!
 |
