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Valve World 2008 Conference & Expo: A huge success
By our editors Christian Borrmann and David Sear
Wow what a busy event!
Busy is probably the best word to say. The Valve World 2008 Conference and Exhibition held on 4 – 6 November in Maastricht, Netherlands turned out to be a massive success for all exhibiting companies as well as conference delegates.
The Conference Chairman, Mr Cees Glansdorp from Shell GSI, formally opened the Valve World 2008 Conference on Tuesday, 4 November. Welcoming the 400-plus delegates, he said that they would be able to benefit fully from the experiences of their peers – valve users, manufacturers and suppliers. He noted that the entire event had grow significantly since the inaugural meeting back in 1998, and that the show would therefore be moving to an even larger venue – Düsseldorf – for 2010. Following Mr Glansdorp’s opening speech, two presentations by Mr Jerry D’Avanzo, DuPont Engineering and Mr Ivan Ter-Mateosyants, NPAA, were held an after a welcome coffee-break, the morning continued with a further 15 lectures held in parallel sessions. Topics included standardization, modeling and design, automated valves and safety.
Next to the Valve World 2008 Conference, of course, the Valve World 2008 Exhibition plays an important role. This year’s expo was the biggest ever, filling two massive halls in the MECC. Key names from the industry are present, including Rotork, Transmark Fcx, Tyco, Bernard, Kitz and Velan. Traffic was said to be brisk, which standholders said was most encouraging for the first day.
On Wednesday morning, the Valve World Conference continued with a great set of presentations and case studies from valve experts from all over the world. Topics included amongst others, Materials, Clad Materials, Fugitive Emissions, Fluid Dynamics, Reliability, and Sealing. Just to name one of the well-visited sessions, Mr Rubayan Al-Shahrani, from Saudi Aramco, gave an interesting and highly informative presentation about repairing and replacing of valves in one of the largest gas systems of the world, located in Saudi Arabia.
After lunch, the Conference moved to the Exhibition and the afternoon was free for all to have a look around at the exhibition, to visit the stands and talk about to the manufacturers, suppliers, distributors, etc.
Voices from the highly active expo floor, said that they are very pleased with the way the exhibition is going so far. A lot of traffic was seen on the floor and the exhibiting companies were very pleased with the results of the second day.
The second day also saw a premiere: The first Speaker’s Corner session was held and it was very, very well visited. Valve experts who sat in on this session said Barrie Kirkman touched on many issues which really do need resolving.
In the evening hours, the famous Valve World Conference Dinner took place in La butte aux bois, Belgium. All guests enjoyed the party and praised the good food and nice atmosphere in the little restaurant.
Thursday was the last day of both, the conference and the exhibition. And although it was the last day, it was still busy in all hallways of the expo floor. Most of the standholders were deeply involved in deep discussions about sales, experiences with valves, etc.
In addition to this, the second round of the Speaker’s Corner was hold by Barrie Kirkman and it was again well attended. Not only were people sitting in the special area but also outside a lot of interested people were attracted by the presentation.
Of course, the Valve World 2008 Conference also continued throughout the whole day. In the morning sessions topics like Procurement, Castings and Materials, and Fugitive Emissions were discussed. These sessions were followed by general presentations given amongst others by Mr Ralph-Harry Klaer, BASF. After the lunch break and a visit to the expo floor, the afternoon was devoted to two workshops, one moderated by Mr Ron Merrick, Flour, and the other one by Hans van Lier, Tyco, and a Master Class given by Mr Con Bannerth.
All in all, everybody from exhibitors over Steering Committee to organisers, were very pleased with the results of this biggest ever Valve World Conference & Exhibition and everybody is know focussing on the two upcoming Valve World events in 2009 in Suzhou, China, and of course, in 2010 in Düsseldorf, Germany.