Interspill 2022 – 2 Days Down. Final Day Approaches!

So far Interspill has surpassed our post-COVID expectations with a larger exhibition, plenty of visitors and many innovations that have made the show so interesting!

Today has had the themes of Diversity, Equality and Inclusion (DEI) running through it.The opening special plenary session by Dr Sabrina Cohen-Hatton saw a full auditorium captivated by her life story and by her knowledge of working under pressure and performing well. Her hard-learned lessons as a senior officer in the Fire and Rescue Service and her doctoral research at Cardiff University were presented in a fascinating presentation with a good question and answer session.

With a buzz of conversation still ringing around the halls, the Premiam Conference started and ran through three sessions today covering:

• Developments & innovation in Post-spill Environmental Monitoring
• Emerging Issues – implications for monitoring and impacts
• Post Spill Monitoring – The International Context

The Technical Conference has had two streams running with good numbers in all sessions that have covered a broad range of topics:

• Incident Management
• Outreach and Communication
• Subsea Response
• Shipping Risks
• Dispersants
• Inland Response

The Science and Innovation Workshops have also been well attended.

The Interspill Academy has concluded its training session and we thank ITOPF, Oil Spill Response, IOPC Funds, IGP&I, VNCI and Orbital OES.

We have also had the DEI lunch and workshop that saw 80 industry professionals, male and female, attend this and enjoy discussing workplace and operational matters that we can all improve in terms of unconscious bias, workplace equality, equal opportunities and managing workplace stress. The lessons for all were that these are not exclusive to one group or another but a message that we need be open about these issues and face them head-on.

The Technical Conference has six sessions focussing tomorrow on:

• Incident Management
• Surveillance Modelling & Visualisation
• Plastics and Marine Litter
• Outreach and Communication
• Wildlife
• Shoreline Response
• Emerging Technology
• Case Histories

The Science Workshops in the Seminar Theatre hosted by Cedre and ITOPF will focus on:

• Sensitive Tropical Environments
• The Innovation Workshops have presentations covering
• Norlense and their Trawl Boom and some other presentations from exhibitors.

The day will conclude with a reflection on Interspill 2022 and the impact that Interspill has had from our retiring Conference Co-Chair.

Rob Cox leaves the industry after a noteworthy 33 years starting with a decade at Chevron followed by 2 years in Bahrain concluding with 21 years at IPIECA where his role as Technical Director has seen him lead major change to our industry following the Deepwater Horizon incident in April 2010. We have all appreciated his knowledge, humour, professionalism and experience. His will be hard boots to fill and we wish him well in retirement!