Welcome and Introduction

Rob James, Chairman Interspill Ltd

We are just weeks away from Interspill 2022.

Your Interspill Committee have worked hard with our exhibition organiser iConex to make this an ambitious and broader event than when we were last at Amsterdam in 2015. I am pleased with what we have achieved and look forward to delivering it from 21 – 23 June.

New for 2022, the Interspill Conference has long been the jewel in our crown, and exhibitors recognise this with their support for the Exhibition. Recognising that Covid has changed our world, putting pressure on budgets, and also travel, the need to make the Conference more accessible to all those attending Interspill was obvious to both the Committee and Organiser.

Consequently for 2022, the Conference will be open to all attending, with all visitors paying a flat daily fee of €100 to attend all of the event. Traditional Conference delegates will see the cost of attending for 3 days halved, and day visitors will not only have access to the Exhibition; but can attend all Conference and workshops sessions.

Our industry has managed to work efficiently through a pandemic and is as busy as I can remember with major staff commitments to a succession of incidents in 2021 and 2022 with Peru being the most recent. As industry more widely is recovering from the slowdown caused by COVID, it is now working at capacity with the added strain due to the war in Ukraine. We are now seeing incidents, some minor but some major through infrastructure failing. It highlights how preparedness, rapid response and restoration are as important today as they wereat the first Interspill in 2000 in Brighton!

In 2022 we are all challenged and excited by the move toward net zero. The transition will bring challenges as well as new opportunities. Having successfully evolved spill response to work in a pandemic I am sure we will rise to the challenge the migration to net zero will bring. Many conference sessions and science workshops are focussed on this relevant topic.

This issue of the Interspill newsletter announces excellent opening keynote speakers, a strong conference programme, with 21 sessions, a special plenary session and an exciting industry representation as well as training and of course networking. This event is face to face; something we have all missed over the last 2 years! We also have introduced industry sector themed days where the content for the day will be oriented toward issues pertinent to a specific industry sector, eg. shipping and salvage and clean seas.

We are mindful that this will be one of the first face to face events for the oil spill industry as we recover from the pandemic. Consequently we are doing all we can to ensure it is COVID safe and welcoming to exhibitors, conference delegates and visitors alike.

We are all looking forward to returning to RAI in Amsterdam where we held a very successful event in 2015. We are assured by the professionalism of the venue and organisers who have safely been holding events and conferences during 2021. They have issued their own set of COVID Protocols that we will all have to follow.

If you have yet to register do so now to take advantage of all that there is to see and learn from attending Interspill 2022!

I look forward to welcoming you there!