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What's killing our technical symposiums

What’s killing our symposiums?

Not sure if you heard, but the 2nd International TUV Rheinland Safety Symposium USA was cancelled. 

This 2 day event scheduled for April 24 – 25, was sure to be the talk of Galveston, TX as well respected professionals such as Heinz Gall, Walt Boyes, Dr. Michael Houtermans, Dr. Larry Beckman, Paul Gruhn, Robin McCrea-Steele and myself were going to present on process safety developments and case studies.  So what happened?  Aren’t people interested in SAFETY?

Here’s my 2 cents on what killed this symposium…

1. Promotion.  As far as I know they only worked with exhibitors and presenters on getting the word out?    Plus I don’t think the “customer” benefit was well communicated.  Unfortunately many of the topics probably just didn’t hit home to our US customer base….

2.  Location.  Galveston, TX?  That’s just far enough away from the Houston ship channel to make this hard to get management’s approval to take the 2 or 3 days off to attend.  Does the word “boondoggle” mean anything? 

3.  Timing.  It’s a busy time in the gulf coast region and getting permission to escape the hectic plant life to bask in the Galveston sun, might have been a tough pill for some managers liking

Well that’s my top 3.  What’s your reason for not attending?

Published Monday, April 09, 2007 9:47 AM by Charles Fialkowski
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# re: What's killing our technical symposiums

I think promotion, broadly speaking, was a problem (although I say this not knowing what all you did to promote it). First, I just heard about it last week through an Invensys press release. I posted a note on my blog, but there was no place for them to go and register. From my blog post tonight: People just don't come to symposiums on a whim. Especially something new. It takes a lot of work to bring people. Several email requests and some publicity and the active solicitation of customers by suppliers bring new people. You have to show them that there's something worthwhile in it for them. You can't just say "we're going to talk about safety" and hope to get 100-200 people. Now, I don't know what this group did, but if they want a little free PR advice, I'm willing to help non-commercial, standards causes. I believe in them.
Monday, April 09, 2007 9:47 PM by Gary Mintchell

# What's killing our technical symposiums

Charlie, The question is not "What is killing our technical symposiums"? The question is, "What is killing TUV?" TUV certification was once revered as the ultimate accomplishment for a supplier of safety equipment. The grueling testing, the in-depth examinations, the endless interrogations all gave users assurance that the product they were buying had proven itself in every way imaginable. TUV no longer has that mystique. They are outdated and now have competition and with that it seems that they have compromised their standards in order to win business. Frankly, it doesn't surprise me that Gulf Coast engineers aren't overly excited about attending a TUV sponsored symposium. I wouldn't be. Al
Friday, April 13, 2007 11:27 PM by Alan Cohol

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