Introduction
On the heels of a very successful GeoConvention 2019, we would like to thank all of the individuals who attended and the companies who supported the convention by exhibiting, sponsoring and supporting their employees’ attendance. GeoConvention 2019 saw another year of increased attendance, a larger number of exhibitors and greater sponsorship than in 2018 as we continue to focus on the quality of the technical program and the return our corporate contributors receive. The Convention hosted 50 sessions in total with 99% of our delegates rating the technical merit as good or excellent.
For the 2019 program, we were extremely fortunate to have passionate session chairs who focused on play-specific talks, others who focused on the latest advancements in technology and panels, bringing together some of the brightest minds in the Canadian industry to share their experiences and insights to the value of geosciences within every organization while navigating the current landscape.
GeoConvention 2019 was successful in bringing together the geoscience community through a cost effective and top-tier technical program, maximizing the professional development of our attendees and providing them with networking opportunities for students, young professionals and industry veterans.
GeoConvention 2019 hosted nearly 400 Technical and Poster Presentations and saw approximately 3200 attendees while returning over $132K to the CSEG to assist with the society’s ongoing education, outreach and geoscience advancement programs (pending final audit results).
Volunteers
GeoConvention would like to recognize the time and expertise of all of our planning committee volunteers who all helped make the 2019 program a success, listed below in Table 1. Additionally, we would like to extend a sincere thank you to our 110 pre-convention and on-site volunteers, both students and industry professionals, who helped make the convention a success.
| Committee | Name |
|---|---|
| Table 1. GeoConvention 2019 committee listing. | |
| General Co‐Chair (CSEG) | Gary Paukert |
| General Co‐Chair (CSPG) | Robert Flowerday |
| General Co‐Chair (CWLS) | Gary Bugden |
| Technical Co‐Chair (CSEG) | Lona Gregory |
| Technical Co‐Chair (CSPG) | Jon Noad |
| Technical Co‐Chair (CWLS) | Tracy Du |
| Poster Chair | Breanne Rathgeber |
| Judging Chair | Scott Matieshin |
| Exhibits and Sponsorship Chair | Nash Hayward |
| Exhibits and Sponsorship Chair | Brendon Lybbert |
| Exhibits and Sponsorship Chair | Giselle Fonseca |
| Exhibits and Sponsorship Chair | Tatyana Plaksina |
| Exhibits and Sponsorship Chair | James Duggan |
| Mobile App Chair | Zekai Jia |
| Mobile App Chair | A.J. Gates |
| Social Media Chair | Chris Harrison |
| Volunteer Chair | Mandy Thompson |
| Student Outreach | Adam MacInnis |
| Student Outreach | Mitchell Gillrie |
| Finance Chair | Spryng Kubicek |
Technical
Based on the success of the 2018 technical program, similar themes were used to derive key content and contributions for the 2019 program. The 2019 themes are presented below.
GeoConvention 2019 Themes
Building Strong Foundations - Technical Fundamentals and Applications
An opportunity to mentor others by sharing fundamental aspects of key subsurface disciplines and grow by learning how others have applied specific discipline skills to improve subsurface understanding.
New Horizons - Novel Technological Tools and Advancements
Do you have a new idea or novel technology to share? Have you applied machine learning or Artificial Intelligence to solve a geo-engineering or subsurface understanding problem? This is your chance to share new approaches and technologies to solve new, and old, problems!
Unconventional Plays - Advancing Understanding and Profitability
Focus will be on key Canadian unconventional plays (Montney, Duvernay, Spirit River, Heavy Oil, Oil Sands) and international analogs. Content will emphasize integrated studies and case examples that show advancements in play understanding and how this drives profitability.
Managing the Risks of Unconventionals Development
Unconventional resource developments face many technical and public relations challenges including surface footprint/access, water sourcing/management/disposal, fugitive emissions and induced seismicity. Cooperation between industry, academia, government agencies and local communities will lead to the best outcome on these issues. Let's share our experiences and views on how to manage these risks.
Conventional Plays and Frontier Basins
Conventionals and frontiers endure as an integral part of our industry. What treasures remain and where do we look for future opportunities?
Challenges and Opportunities for the Canadian Energy Industry
What opportunities await as Canada’s energy industry evolves? Share your perspective on the current, near or long term status and needs of our industry.
Business and Development
This theme will focus on personal, business and professional development as well as bring in market insights from industry leaders. How can we best position ourselves and our business for the future?
Sponsorship
We are very thankful to those sponsors who contributed to our success. Sponsorship allows GeoConvention to offer a best-in-class technical program while also supporting our networking programs and ultimately returning to our non-profit partners. The ongoing support of the GeoConvention sponsors is sincerely appreciated and critical to the ongoing success of the Convention. The sponsors and their support levels are shown in Figure 1.
Exhibits
2019 saw a 10% year over year increase in sold exhibition space with 96 total exhibitors. The exhibit floor continued (and will continue) to be free to all attendees who wish to join us and learn from our supporting companies as we continue to strive in providing as much visibility and return to our exhibitors as possible.
Networking and Luncheons
The networking nights again proved to be the single-biggest draw to the exhibition floor. The Monday evening icebreaker attracted an estimated 1050 visitors and the Tuesday evening another 900 as students and industry professionals had the opportunity to reconnect and make new connections while visiting with exhibitors at these very popular industry events. GeoConvention was very fortunate to have Evil Company Brewing, Freehold Brewing and Long Hop Brewing sponsor drink tickets for all delegates to enjoy a beverage while at the networking functions.
The partner society-hosted luncheons were again a huge success in 2019 with both the CSPG and CSEG lunches selling out. The CSPG hosted Bob Fryklund, Chief Strategist Upstream, IHS Markit for the Monday keynote, the CSEG hosted “Let’s get Geophysical” networking lunch at The Palomino Smokehouse and the CWLS hosted “Refresh” networking lunch at the Bank and Barron.
The final event associated with GeoConvention 2019 will be recognition of the Best of 2019 Networking Night and PechaKucha, scheduled for early October. Please keep an eye on our website and your emails for final details and presentation lineup once confirmed.
GeoConvention 2019 Awards
We are very grateful to all presenters at GeoConvention 2019 and would like to extend special congratulations to the 2019 award winners for being chosen as the best of the best by the general audience and industry experts through our Mobile App.
A complete list of award winners as selected through our Mobile App by the general audience and industry experts can be found below in Table 2.
| Title | Presenter | Award |
|---|---|---|
| Table 2. Geoconvention 2019 Award Winners. | ||
| Bioturbation and sedimentation rate in prodeltas) | Janok Bhattacharya | Best Oral Presentation |
| Fundamental Skills in Core to Log Correlations in Unconventional Resource Plays: Examples from the Montney Formation) | Thomas Moslow | Best Oral Presentation |
| Responsible Disposal of Oil and Gas Waste Fluids: Trends, Risks and Mitigation | Kim Kingsmith | Best Oral Presentation |
| Transitioning to High Density Vibroseis - a Case Study | Andrea Crook | Best Oral Presentation |
| Drilling practices and challenges: With some of the deepest and longest laterals in Canada, what are some of the challenges and successes in the Duvernay | Sean Kleiner | Best Oral Presentation |
| Facies Control on Fluid Accumulation, VIking Formation, Elrose Field, Saskatchewan, Canada | Stefan Wieclawek | Best Oral Presentation - Honorable Mention |
| The Importance of Geoscience in using Machine Learning to Predict and Optimize Well Performance – Case Study from the Spirit River Formation | John Hirschmiller | Best Oral Presentation - Honorable Mention |
| Least-squares RTM of a seismic-while-drilling dataset | Nasser Kazemi | Best Oral Presentation - Honorable Mention |
| Mineralogical controls on organic-hosted pore volume and pore size – Duvernay Formation, Alberta, Canada | Levi Knapp | Best Oral Presentation - Honorable Mention |
| Ultra-High-Density 3D Seismic in the Oil Sands with Near Zero Environmental Footprint | Paul Thacker | Best Poster |
| A Tephrostratigraphic Approach to Understanding Subsurface Sedimentary Architecture. An Example from Permian Fort Cooper Coal Measures, Bowen Basin, Queensland, Australia | Syeda Areeba Ayaz | Best Poster - Honorable Mention |
| Understanding Public Risk Perception in the Oil and Gas Industry | Jordan Phillips | Best Student Oral Presentation |
| Analysis of the Metre-Scale Depositional Architecture of the Montney Fm. in Outcrop using UAV Technology: Implications for Sedimentology and Fracture Stratigraphy | Simon Poirier | Best Student Oral Presentation - Honorable Mention |
| δ13C, δ18O and 87Sr/86Sr isotope composition of Montney Formation carbonate phases: implications for the nature of diagenetic fluids | Mastaneh Liseroudi | Best Student Oral Presentation - Honorable Mention |
| The interaction between cm- and m-scale heterogeneity of the Duvernay Formation based on an outcrop case study: implications for 3-D reservoir modeling | Samantha Mackie | Best Student Poster |
| Neural Network Models for Predicting the Size and Horizontal Location of Shale Barrier Using Reservoir Parameters and SAGD Production Data | Min Kim | Best Student Poster |
| 1D and 2D Petroleum System Modelling of Potential Lower Jurassic Source Rock on Scotian Margin | Xinyue Hu | Best Student Poster - Honorable Mention |
| Defining a Geo-model of the South Swan Hills Reef Complex for Geothermal Use, Swan Hills, Alberta | Christopher Noyahr | Best Student Poster - Honorable Mention |
GeoConvention 2020
For 2020, the GeoConvention partner societies – CSEG, CSPG and CWLS will be joined by GAC (Geological Association of Canada), MAC (Mineralogical Association of Canada), IAH (International Association of Hydrogeologists) and Geothermal Canada for a once-in-a-decade collaboration, fully integrating participation through the full geoscience spectrum. GeoConvention 2020 will be hosted at the Calgary Telus Convention Centre May, May 13th – 15th.
The 2020 Call for Sessions is open now and the call for abstracts will open mid-September.
To keep up to date on GeoConvention visit www.geoconvention.com and follow @geoconvention on Twitter, geoconvention on LinkedIn and Instagram and GeoConventionCanada on Facebook. In addition, the GeoConvention 365 App is your year-round resource for all materials, presenter bios and abstracts from GeoConvention; find it on the Google Play or Apple App Store.
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