The grand ol’ dame of Houston conventions — the Offshore Technology Conference — is winding down over at Reliant Park.
The OTC covers state-of-the-art technology for offshore drilling, exploration, production, and environmental protection, and it is the world energy industry’s foremost event for the development of offshore resources. This is the 36th straight year that industry engineers, technicians, executives, operators, scientists, and managers have gathered in Houston for the OTC, and the conference’s exhibit floor on the floor of Reliant Stadium — including massive and specialized equipment and technological devices used in the extraction of oil and gas from offshore locations — is one of the more fascinating that you will ever see at any convention.
Although an industry conference rather than one that caters to the masses, the OTC has always been interesting in that it tends to mirror the state of the local Houston economy. During the early 1970’s through the early 1980’s, the conference boomed as increased global demand for energy and Middle East embargoes ratched up the price of oil. After conference attendance topped out at almost 110,000 in 1982, the prolonged bust in the energy industry in the mid-1980’s resulted in substantially decreased attendance. In 1984, the conference was held without an exhibition of equipment and technology at all, and the late 1980’s brought speculation that the expense of putting on the conference may have become an overpriced luxury for industry participants.
Nevertheless, over the past 15 years or so, the OTC has grown steadily to regain its stature as one of the key oil and gas industry conferences held each year, and last year’s attendance of almost 50,000 was the highest since the 1982 record. A pass to the exhibit hall is usually easy to obtain and a visit is well worth it. The conference winds up today, so hurry.