Nearly 6,000 people have helped make this year’s Subsea Expo a record breaker.
More than 5,300 delegates and a further 500 school pupils and students attended Europe’s largest subsea exhibition and conference in Aberdeen this week.
And last night organisers said the event – at the Aberdeen Exhibition and Conference Centre – had surpassed all expectations.
Subsea Expo has grown to become one of the world’s leading events in the oil and gas calendar, and Aberdeen’s third largest event after Offshore Europe and All Energy.
Neil Gordon, chief executive of Subsea UK, the show’s organisers, said: “This year’s event has surpassed all expectations.
“We have attracted more delegates, more international visitors, more exhibitors, more speakers and more young people than ever before, underlining the importance of our sector to the UK and to the global oil and gas industry.
“The UK subsea market is now worth almost £9billion and this week has demonstrated exactly why our supply chain is envied around the world.
“Our technology, expertise and experience are unparalleled and Subsea Expo provides a platform for showcasing them.
“The feedback has been tremendously positive with many companies reporting strong levels of new business that will ensure that the sector is well on its way to capturing the forecast £11billion – a third of the global market share – by 2016.”
James Ritchie of Tekmar, which was exhibiting for the first time, said: “We have been pleasantly surprised by the valuable conversations and strong leads from the show. It’s an excellent and highly focused event which has generated major interest in our specialised subsea cable protection systems that will inevitably lead to new business.”
The subsea focus was echoed by Chris Watson of subsea equipment rental company Oceanscan. He said: “As a relatively small company, we’ve found that we can get lost at other events. Subsea Expo is the ideal size and its specialised scope means that we meet new customers.”
Don Walker of PhotoSynergy, which took home the innovation for safety award at the Subsea UK Business Awards, said: “This is our fifth year exhibiting and although we have seen the event grow every year, it has retained its friendly atmosphere.”
Neil Douglas of Viper Subsea said: “The quality of the contacts and leads established on the first day alone made the show a success from our point of view. Attendance here is incredibly valuable to our company and the interest shown in Viper following our success at the Subsea UK Business Awards has been significant.”