Executive Message

In my last executive message I waxed philosophical and misspelled “nick of time” as “knick of time”. This gaffe triggered ribbing among friends and colleagues in the industry who know me as a consummate grammar cop (on a good day under favourable wind conditions, I’ve been known to sniff out an it’s/its violation from 300 metres out). As the first taunts began rolling in, I indignantly googled the misspelled version of the expression and came up with a zillion hits. Ha, I thought—I did spell it right after all! My feelings of vindication quickly morphed into that sinking sensation one equates with being wrong—a more customary feeling, for me, at least—when I realized that all these hits were corny quotes from sportswriters reporting on New York City’s professional basketball team squeaking out last-minute victories. So in this message I’ve promised myself to stick to reporting on facts related to continuing education instead of doling out philosophical musings (how am I doing so far?).

In April I assumed the role of Director, Educational Services. My tenure started off with a whimper, for I wound up being out-of-country on a work assignment during the week over which two big CSEG events took place. The first was the April CSEG technical luncheon featuring SEG 2011 Spring Distinguished Lecturer Andrey Bakulin who spoke about the virtual source method, and the second was the annual SEG/EAGE Distinguished Instructor Short Course presented by Julien Meunier who lectured on modern techniques in acquisition and on how acquisition parameters relate to image quality. Feedback I received from various folks suggested that both events were very well received by the membership, and a special thanks goes out to Hugh Geiger, Assistant Director of Educational Services, for handling the bulk of the logistics while I was away.

The joint convention took place in May, and while there was no technical luncheon that month, the CSEG did host three convention short courses. Of these, two were sold-out (one on microseismic and another one on prestack interpolation— both hot topics in our industry right now).The third of these was a course on how to deliver effective Powerpoint presentations, and it was rather poorly attended for reasons I don’t understand. Feedback from participants who did attend this course was glowing and I’d like to remind everybody that this topic is of vital importance to our industry. Hopefully we’ll be able to offer the course again sometime soon—in the meantime, please drop me a note if you think it would be of interest to you or your colleagues. Thanks to course instructors Mauricio Sacchi, Shawn Maxwell and Christa Bruns for a great job, and also a big thank-you goes out to John Fernando, last year’s Director of Educational Services, for organizing the printing of the course manuals.

The June technical luncheon was presented by Edward Jenner who delivered a great talk on prestack migration in orthorhombic media. Also in June, the AAPG Geosciences Technology Workshop on “Resource Plays in Unconventional Reservoirs” took place at the Banff Centre. This was a multidisciplinary event featuring top-level speakers discussing pressing topics in an informal (and beautiful) setting. Summertime saw (or should I say, sees, for it’s not over yet— I’m typing this out sitting at a beach and it’s 30 degrees!) the usual lull in CSEG-related activities as well as the moving of the CSEG offices, and I expect everyone will be all rested up and ready to resume learning when September rolls around.

All of this reporting on past events naturally raises the question of what sorts of educational goodies are in store for the membership in the upcoming months. It turns out that we’ve got a very busy plate. The September technical luncheon will be given by Scott Stockton who will talk about multicomponent imaging in fractured Bakken reservoirs and the October luncheon presentation will be delivered by SEG Fall Distinguished Lecturer Doug Oldenburg who will talk about applying modern methods in inverse theory to near-surface imaging. November is Doodletrain month, and along with Doodetrain comes the usual fantastic slate of short courses as well as a CSEG luncheon presentation by keynote speaker Malcolm Lansley. Malcolm will be talking about recent advances in recording technology. By the way, Doodletrain courses are open for registration and for a complete description of course offerings check out the CSEG website. The December technical luncheon will feature 2011 SEG North American Honorary Lecture Tour presenter Tad Smith talking about the effective use of log data, and the new year kicks off with 2012 CSEG Distinguished Lecturer Lee Hunt discussing quantitative methods in interpretation at the January luncheon. In late-breaking news, I’m delighted to report that we have managed to secure Mike Kendall as the February CSEG luncheon speaker (Mike will be talking about magma-assisted rifting in Ethiopia) and we are close to firming up speakers for March and April, 2012 as well.

I’d like to close off by mentioning an exciting new initative that will kick off in late March, 2012, the CSEG Symposium. This event, spearheaded by Satinder Chopra and his team, is aimed at honouring local geophysicists who have made important contributions to our field. The 2012 honourees have been selected, and although I can’t divulge names at this time, I know you’ll agree that they are most worthy recipients. You’ll hear more about this event soon.

Great stuff, all this, and the last thing I’ll point out is that I’ve actually had to do very little active soliciting of contributions; instead, it seems that speakers and event organizers are constantly approaching me. And that, I think, is a truly powerful testament to the vibrancy of our geophysical community.