California, here we come.
For the first time in over a decade, AAPG is returning to southern California for the 92nd Annual Convention and Exhibition, which will be held April 1-4 at the Long Beach Convention Center.
Built around the theme “Understanding Earth Systems -- Pursuing the Checkered Flag,” Long Beach has attracted more than 1,000 oral and poster presentations spread out over 11 themes that are diverse and global in scope.
Included in that total are eight forum or special sessions, plus the annual Michel T. Halbouty Lecture at 5:10 p.m. Monday, April 2, which this year will be Kurt Rudolph’s talk on “Current Petroleum Exploration Trends: Prudent Investment or Irrational Exuberance?”
Add to that the various luncheon speakers, a large exhibits hall filled with the latest in information and technology plus a large array of short courses and field trips, and convention organizers say you have the setting for a superb conference.
“The technical program is the foundation of the meeting -- I believe that (it) is one of the strongest in years,” said meeting general chair Dalton Lockman. “Those attending will find information about new technologies, exploring new basins and developing strategies to maximize production and reserves.”
He added that the technical sessions, field trips and meeting venue offer “a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity that cannot be duplicated.
“We have linked most of the field trips to technical sessions to provide a comprehensive learning experience,” Lockman said. “California provides a laboratory in its backyard where world-class outcrops and analog exposures abound.
“Seeing the rocks is still the most effective way for a geoscientist to gain an in-depth understanding of the earth systems we think about on a daily basis.
“For example,” he continued, “if deep water clastics are the focus of your work, you could start your convention by taking a Saturday pre-convention field trip to view sedimentology and facies architecture of channelized slope deposits 50 miles from the convention center. On Sunday you could view cores from multiple deep water reservoirs ... and on Monday you could then immerse yourself by attending all or some of the 22 technical sessions (oral and poster) focused on deepwater reservoirs.
“To put the icing on the cake you could conclude your convention experience by heading back to the field for five days and view the outstanding deepwater facies outcrops California has to offer,” he said.
Plenty of Highlights
The convention officially starts at 4 p.m. Sunday, April 1, with the opening session, featuring AAPG President Lee Billingsley’s address plus the presentation of AAPG honors and awards, when Arnold Bouma will receive this year’s Sidney Powers Memorial Award.
The traditional Icebreaker event begins one hour later in the exhibits hall.
As Lockman and others said, there are other “must see” events as well, including:
- The Career Center will offer a variety of tools and special events for attendees to connect to employment opportunities, including an April 1 seminar on “How to Be An Independent Geologist.”
- This year’s student poster sessions will provide the greatest student participation in the history of the annual meeting.
- End-of-day refreshments will be offered at 4:30-5:30 p.m. both April 2-3 in the exhibits hall.
- “Music and Mayhem” is the Tuesday night social activity, when attendees have an exclusive night of music, food and fun at Long Beach’s popular Blue Café.
- This year, the meeting will have an official ending: The Sundowner Reception will be held Wednesday at 5-6:30 p.m. on the convention center’s promenade patio, overlooking the Pacific Ocean.
This year’s convention marks the first time Long Beach has served as the site for an AAPG annual meeting; Los Angeles has been the host on six previous occasions, and Anaheim was the site in 1973. AAPG’s most recent California-based annual convention was the 1996 meeting in San Diego.
Detailed convention information and registration instructions can be found online at www.aapg.org.