This month I’d like to direct your attention to a project that we’re excited about: AAPG Mobile, a new mobile app for iOS and Android devices that is your digital connection to AAPG and its members with a simple tap of the screen. You can download it now from the Apple App Store and Google Play.
If you’ve attended a major AAPG event, like ACE or ICE, in the recent past you’ve probably downloaded an event-specific app to help you navigate the conference. It would show you when and where technical sessions were located, allow you to plan your schedule, make notes or search for specific exhibitors on the show floor. It’s a tool to use.
AAPG Mobile, in contrast, is designed to promote community and engagement. The purpose is to connect and reinforce relationships in our community, standing together in difficult circumstances.
Upcoming Events
We’re not giving up on events, of course. They are essential to our mission of disseminating science as well as building community and connecting similarly-minded professionals. And we have two in the works that will do just that:
• Global Super Basins 2021 is scheduled for Jan. 25-26 with an online event focused on basins of North America;
• And in March we’re planning an event on carbon capture use and storage.
Whether you’re an explorer at heart looking to understand the hydrocarbon prospectivity of basins in North America or looking to better understand the nascent CCUS industry – and enhanced oil recovery, an important bridge to get there – our member leaders continue to develop programs to advance our science and understanding.
Making and Improving the App
But as we’ve learned to connect using technology during this global pandemic, we at AAPG headquarters have been working to identify new ways for our members to use technology to connect with each other. And we needed to be able to do this efficiently and effectively. We did not want to take on the cost and complexity of developing an app from scratch. Instead, we turned to Clowder, a firm that has an app designed to integrate seamlessly with our membership database.
Deploying an app that was built for associations, used by many other organizations, and with a significant global user base allowed us to bring this to our members and community quickly and cost-effectively – two important considerations in these difficult times.
And Clowder is continually soliciting feedback and updating its development roadmap, adding features and functionality as time goes on, so AAPG Mobile will keep getting better.
Some of the features I’d like to draw your attention to are the Newsfeed. This is the opening screen on the app, where we post information that is of interest to our members. You’ll note AAPG announcements for specific activities, such as accessing ACE 2020 and URTeC 2020 online. But it also features human-interest stories about our members, member-submitted reports from specific ACE 2020 Online sessions, and later this month you’ll begin to see app-exclusive content. The front page also includes links to daily oil and gas news selected by EXPLORER Managing Editor Brian Ervin as well as links to that month’s EXPLORER articles.
You can find and message other app users directly in AAPG Mobile – it’s a way to begin building community. And those conversations carry over into the forums.
We’ve begun rolling out forums for specific groups within AAPG, such as the AAPG Women’s Network, the U.S. sections, and others to promote conversations and individual exchange. Are you part of an AAPG community that would like to use a forum – either to talk among yourselves or with the broader community? If so, please let us know and we’ll get it set up for you.
There are other tabs and resources to explore, and in some cases, we’re looking for ways to best use them. Do you have ideas of features you’d like to see on AAPG Mobile – features that you would find interesting and engaging and would cause you to open the app on your phone or tablet and spend some time connecting with other E&P professionals? Those are the kinds of ideas that we are looking for. Send me a message through the app with your suggestion.
AAPG is a global community of geoscience professionals and using technology we have the opportunity to connect even during this pandemic – your community at your fingertips.