This article provides a synopsis of the first part of our presentation, being a collaboration of feedback on the 2007 Joint Technical Meeting (JTM) – international pipeline research conference – experience through the eyes of the six young pipeliner APIA scholarship recipients.
Young pipeliners are acutely aware of the need to gain experience. It was an amazing and unique opportunity to attend the JTM and we tried to learn as much as possible from the experience and exposure to the latest in pipeline research. We left with a much greater awareness of how technically diverse the pipeline industry is, and it certainly sparked our interest.
Contrary to the idea that all research is “˜pie in the sky’ stuff and irrelevant, we all gained specific knowledge that will contribute to improving our capabilities in our work, and overall, our knowledge was broadened. The JTM also gave us invaluable exposure; to high-level industry issues, to broad topics of research across multiple disciplines, and to the industry’s personnel and personalities.
The JTM was also an excellent networking opportunity. We were all struck by the diversity of delegates. It will be no surprise that most of us could identify some challenges in this area; how to do “˜effective networking’, joining in “˜cold turkey’ on conversations to name a few.
We hoped that sharing this feedback with the industry would: point to the benefits of the APIA Board’s decision to provide scholarships for the JTM, highlight the benefits to young pipeliners in attending the JTM, have people consider the challenges faced by young pipeliners, and encourage all industry members to expose their young pipeliners to such events.
The scholarship recipients thank the APIA Board for their demonstration of support of young pipeliners. We were all greatly encouraged and it has helped to foster our interest in the pipeline industry.
The scholarship recipients were: Anthony Cobiac (Epic Energy), Nicholas Scott (WorleyParsons), Peter Barnett (GHD), Mark Dragar (Alinta), Hisham Bin Abu Bakar (Petronas) and Chris Jones (BlueScope).