PNWTDC2007

This forum is provided for the further edification of our club members seeking to improve their knowledge and diving skills. (recreational diving only)
Post Reply
Scubak
I've Got Gills
Posts: 1514
Joined: Wed Jan 18, 2006 7:25 pm

PNWTDC2007

Post by Scubak »

Tim and I went up to Edmonds conference center on Sunday for the first annual Pacific Northwest Tech Diving Conference. This was put on by Peo Orvandal and John Sharps.
It was a great day filled with several great seminars consisiting of talks in length from 30 mins to an hour. Sign in was at 8:30 am and with Tim working all night I met him in Seattle and off we went.
The conference center is wonderful and accomodating...so if there are any large group things we need to do this might be the venue for it.
We started with the intro and list of events. We then went into a talk by John Sharps about the planes in Lake Washington.
Next we had a Fantastic talk from Jeff Christiansen from the Seattle Aquarium on their six gill project. He is a fasinating speaker. I would recommend him for some club presentations.
We went onto sonar imaging and then onto Fatalities in Tech Diving by Richard Dunford from Virginia Mason Hperbaric Unit. He was really imformative.
Then we had a great lunch of pizza and pop and someone won a Halcyon wing...Not me
Then we had a talk on the shipwrecks that SCRET is working on like the Govenor and others.
Mel Clark and Leon Scamahorn spoke on rebreathers, safety and responciblilty. These are 2 sharp cookies when it comes to RBs!!!
All in all Tim and I had a great time. There was only about 50 people there total. A 5th D group...and several divers that I did not know. I was surprised that more of the "general public" didn't come on out. The only other diver that I really knew was KIRBY!!! Most I know by names or posting. Oh!!! I did finally get to meet John Rawlings!!!! Finally after how many years. Everyone, you missed a great time. Hope it gets bigger next year. Worth every penny Tim and I spent. A nice change from the normal road of things.
Kirsten
PS..Maybe John will post some pics and thanks to everyone who presented there!!!
User avatar
LCF
I've Got Gills
Posts: 5697
Joined: Tue May 30, 2006 5:05 pm

Post by LCF »

Capacity was unfortunately very limited, but hopefully with the success of this year's program, Peo will ramp up for the next one.

I had to work, or I would have been there.
"Sometimes, when your world is going sideways, the second best thing to everything working out right, is knowing you are loved..." ljjames
Tangfish
NWDC Mascot
NWDC Mascot
Posts: 7746
Joined: Fri Dec 30, 2005 2:11 pm

Post by Tangfish »

It sounds like you all had a great time, sorry I couldn't make it!
User avatar
thelawgoddess
Pelagic
Posts: 993
Joined: Sat Jun 10, 2006 10:16 pm

Post by thelawgoddess »

i was there and it was definitely worth it. i felt a little like an outsider since i'm not really a "tech diver" per se, but the presentations were quite interesting and i would definitely go again. nice work, peo! (he and john ... and everyone else involved did a fantastic job!)
"Life without passion is life without depth."~J.Hollis
my FLICKR photo sets
peo
Avid Diver
Posts: 60
Joined: Mon Oct 02, 2006 2:04 pm

Post by peo »

thelawgoddess wrote:i was there and it was definitely worth it. i felt a little like an outsider since i'm not really a "tech diver" per se, but the presentations were quite interesting and i would definitely go again. nice work, peo! (he and john ... and everyone else involved did a fantastic job!)
Thanks for your kind words.

We tried to make a point in not being too assuming that there are only "tech divers" in the audience, so I am glad to hear that we didn't do horribly on that. :)

We had a total of 68 attendees, and the room really officially only seats 60. Next year it seems like we'll have to get a larger room. This year was kind of an experiment - now we know that there is enough interest to do something like this, and we'll probably shoot for something bigger next year.

There are a couple of directions we can go in with regards to the content and form of the 2008 conference. Thoughts or feedback on what you'd like to see during an event like this is much appreciated. I am as interested in hearing this from people who did attend as from people who did NOT. Just send me a PM.

One of the things we've set out to do is to try to bridge the rifts between the various tech diving groups there are out there in this area, and to focus on what the really interesting stuff (i.e. the things we see when we dive) rather than the perhaps more contentious stuff that tend to draw blood when discussed (especially on the Internet). I was very proud and happy to see groups from both ends of the spectrum meet and share their experiences and knowledge under the same roof for once. A few groups opted not to be there this year, but I hope they can join in next year and share what they are up to.

At least ONE photo from the event is available at http://www.pnwtdc.com

/Peo
Post Reply