Once again we are approaching the time of the year when AAPG, its Sections, Regions and sister societies start their annual technical program presentations at meetings and conferences.
Each year you have the opportunity to hear some excellent talks and learn from great minds at poster sessions and other educational opportunities.
Besides the annual Section meetings, the upcoming regional meeting in Athens Nov. 18-21 promises some excellent presentations. Of course, San Antonio next spring will be a premier event for AAPG.
Unfortunately, most of this information is not published except in abstract form.
Fortunately, AAPG has established a mechanism to capture many of these presentations through our Datapages program and e-magazine Search & Discovery.
The Search and Discovery magazine is the brainchild of members John Shelton, Ted Beaumont and Ron Hart. Ten years ago they realized that AAPG was capturing only about 10 percent of the output of its paper and poster presenters.
Search & Discovery provides a place to rapidly publish abstracts, luncheon talks, classic company reports and much of the miscellaneous material that was missed by other, more formal publication media.
It’s earned its place as an important part of AAPG’s technical publications mix – and the numbers show that members approve.
I encourage you right now, as you are reading my column, to go to The Director's Corner (if a computer is not available please use your visualization techniques for now).
First, please check out the new AAPG home page. Janet Brister, AAPG’s Web site editor, has done a great job of redesigning the home page. Most members are finding it easier to navigate and use. Please let us know what you think about the new design.
On the lower right hand side of the AAPG homepage you will find a small blue box that says "Search & Discovery“. Please note that this little blue box already has been “clicked” 650,000 times this calendar year!
When you click on the Search & Discovery blue box now you will see its main page. If you click on “New Articles” you will see a list of current articles.
Note the articles that start with a “PS” superscript are poster sessions from this year’s AAPG Annual Convention in Long Beach. How often have you seen a poster at a meeting and wish you could review it later? Now you can!
I encourage you to scan through the many posters on the site.
One of the first poster sessions listed is on the Covenant Field discovery, presented by Tom Chidsey and others. This is a good poster on a key discovery, and I encourage you to take a look.
There also are numerous articles that start with an “AV” superscript. These are oral sessions that you can listen to and watch the corresponding PowerPoint presentation.
There are several excellent talks. One of my favorite talks is by John D Grace on plays in the Gulf of Mexico. All you have to do is click and listen. The PowerPoint will move automatically with the presentation.
Finally, I recommend you take time to browse the Search & Discovery site and familiarize yourself with its many offerings. Each year over four million pages are downloaded, and this year Search & Discovery will have at least 10 million “hits” (bits of data presented), so you are in good company.
Although AAPG’s Search & Discovery is growing both in content and users, there are still many presentations that can be placed on this site.
Each year we ask presenters for permission to use their oral and poster presentations. Each year we ask convention presenters for permission to use their oral and poster presentations on Search & Discovery.
It’s easy to say yes, so please consider submitting your talk for posting when asked.
One of the defining facets of AAPG’s mission statement is dissemination of information. If you have a talk or poster you would like to send to Search & Discovery editorial board, please contact site editor John Shelton.
If you have seen an excellent presentation you would like to recommend, please let us know and we will ask the author or authors.
We live in an exciting time of access. AAPG is committed to making sure that you, our members, have information you can use at work and use in the development of your professional career.