Two-Day PD Conference Linked to Summit/AGM

APEGGA would welcome the opportunity to be involved as a sponsor in the development of technical society-led events.

Ideas ’98, a two-day professional development conference, held in Edmonton April 15-16 as a prelude to APEGGA’s Summit Celebrations and AGM, was staged through close cooperation between APEGGA and several technical societies.

The technical societies involved were the Canadian Society for Chemical Engineering, the Canadian Society for Civil Engineering, the Canadian Portland Cement Association, the Canadian Society for Mechanical Engineering, the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, the American Society of Materials and the Canadian Society for Engineering Management. The consulting firm of KPMG was used to coordinate the sessions on entrepreneurship.

The Edmonton sessions built upon the successes of one-day professional development programs held in both Edmonton and Calgary in 1997. This year’s two-day format permitted the first day to focus on 12 technical topics, such as transportation planning, flaring in the energy industry and, the future of process control.

The second day involved 16 sessions aimed at improving communication, entrepreneurial and management skills and the understanding of professional issues, with topics such as speed reading, engineering practices in the telecommunication age, financial planning for small businesses and the duty to report.

APEGGA Director of Professional Development Len Shrimpton, P.Eng., believes teaming up with the technical societies worked well. "Clearly, we’re trying to work more cooperatively with technical societies so that both will benefit."

However, Mr. Shrimpton added that, unlike the above events where APEGGA has taken the lead in the development of a conference, APEGGA would welcome the opportunity to be involved as a sponsor in the development of technical society-led events. He sees synergy between the technical topics that they would provide and the non-technical topics that APEGGA would provide.

APEGGA will again run a two-day professional development conference in 1999 in Calgary in conjunction with the Summit Awards and the AGM. Mr. Shrimpton encourages all members, especially those in the oil and gas industry to put aside the dates of April 21 and 22, 1999. Meanwhile, members should keep their eyes on The PEGG for other APEGGA PD opportunities.