The show was co-chaired by outgoing ADC President Jim DorŽ (ADC) and Drew Michel (MTS/ROV). The show's Vice Chairman was ADC Executive Director Ross Saxon, the Exhibits Chairman was newly-elected ADC President Fred Aichele, and the Technical Program Chairman was Howie Doyle.

Representing the underwater contracting marketplace were 170 exhibiting companies occupying 225 exhibit spaces. ROV products on display included large work class vehicles weighing over four tons and depth-rated to 10,000 feet (3,000m), down to mini-ROVs that weigh less than a bowling ball yet are capable of carrying an incredible array of instrumentation.

The commercial diving equipment market continues to experience evolution (as opposed to revolution), with a number of new helmets and masks on display on the show floor, as well as the latest in drysuits and contaminated water diving apparatus.

The traditional UI Early Bird Reception kicked things off on the Sunday evening prior to the conference. An enthusiastic crowd attended the social event, renewing old acquaintances and networking with new business contacts.

Media Darlings
As delegates noshed and toasted another year past, members of New Orleans' local media were conducting interviews and shooting video for coverage of the conference on local newscasts. Representatives from local ABC, CBS, FOX and NBC affiliates were present. Reporters and photographers from the New Orleans Times-Picayune and the New York Times also visited the conference.

Of particular interest to the news media was the underwater industry's ties to the search for wreckage from the space shuttle Columbia in the waters of the Toledo Bend Reservoir in east Texas. Scott Bentley, President of VideoRay, conducted several media interviews based on the fact that his company shipped a fully-outfitted mini-ROV to the command center in Hemphill, Texas, the Friday before Underwater Intervention began to assist with the search. Garry Kozak of Klein Associates said some of their sonar equipment was being used in the search for debris, as well.

Another Strong Technical Program
The UI 2003 Technical Program consisted of 110 technical paper presenters and seven panel discussions. Although recent security levels have been heightened worldwide, approximately 25 percent of the presentations were made by authors from international destinations. Due to the outstanding response to last year's program, sessions were held in larger rooms with classroom seating this year.

Opening day saw concurrent tracks on Safety and Training, AUVs, and Commercial Diving take place. The AUV track continues to be a major draw to both oil company representatives and underwater contractors, as the range and survey capabilities of these vehicles continues to improve. It is encouraging that many of the assertions made in these presentations are now related to sea trials and actual on-the-job experience, rather than being based on research and theory.

As part of the Safety & Training track, OSHA representative Steve Butler hosted a panel entitled, "Public Safety Diving and OSHA: Where is the Line?" A continuing concern is that public safety divers often transcend the rescue phase of an in-water operation to conduct salvage activities, which then causes the operation to fall under the auspices of OSHA regulations. The primary way to address this problem is through education, but one problem is that there is no dominant central organization that serves public safety divers in fire departments, police departments, state departments of public safety, and other agencies.

The commercial diving track included a session on diving in contaminated water, with presentations on diving operations during pollution response operations, utilization of hot water suits in contaminated environments, and an update on industry trends developing over the last year.

Tuesday's track included Operations, Remote Intervention, and a special NOAA track which focused on shipwreck exploration and underwater cultural heritage.

The subject of shipwrecks was continued on Wednesday with presentations on submersibles, maritime heritage, inland/coastal projects, and a closing panel session entitled, "Shipwrecks and our Cultural Heritage."

The submersibles session featured a presentation by Dr. George Bass, of Texas A&M University's Archaeology Institute, entitled, "Carolyn: A Submersible for Archaeology." Among other missions, Carolyn was utilized in exploration of a fifth-century-BC shipwreck off Turkey in 2000 that was featured by National Geographic.

2003 ADC Awards
The annual UI Awards Luncheon was held on Monday and featured presentations by both the ADC and MTS ROV Committee. The following ADC awards were presented during the luncheon:

• The John B. Galletti Award was presented to RH "Dutchy" Holland by UI co-chairman and outgoing ADC President Jim DorŽ. Holland has been actively engaged in commercial diving since 1953, when he was trained as a deep diver in hard hat gear while on active duty in the Royal Navy. In 1972, Dutchy received the British Empire Medal for meritorious service to the advancement of diving in the Royal Navy. He subsequently retired from active duty in 1974 as a Warrant Officer 1st Class. He then joined Oceaneering International as Safety Officer, continuing in their employ until 1998. Dutchy has always been prominent in insisting on the highest standards of safety and was influential in developing commercial diving tables used today by Oceaneering International.
• DorŽ then presented ADC International Scholarship Awards to Laura Ancelet and Danielle Hinte. Ancelet will use the scholarship to pursue graduate studies at Louisiana State University. A graduate of University of Louisiana - Lafayette, Ancelet carried a 3.6 GPA for her undergraduate work and will go on to pursue her Masters Degree in social work. She was sponsored for the award by Divers Supply.

  Hinte was sponsored by it International Telecom Group, and will use the scholarship to attend Monmouth University to study psychology. Following graduation from Monmouth, Hinte plans to pursue graduate studies in either counseling or clinical psychology.

2003 MTS ROV Committee Awards
The MTS ROV Committee Corporate Excellence Award was presented by UI co-chairman Drew Michel to Dynacon. The company was formed in 1986 by James H. Stasny and Joe R. Janac, and now employs 80 full-time employees at its 55,000-square-foot engineering and manufacturing facility in Bryan, Texas. Dynacon specializes in the design and manufacture of winches and handling systems for a remarkably diversified customer base encompassing both domestic and foreign commercial, military, and oceanographic research applications. The company's model 421, 521, 521 XL, and self-erecting A-frames (Model 6021 and 1010) have become industry standard for handling work class ROVs and other underwater vehicles.

The MTS ROV Committee's Academic Excellence award was presented by Michel to the Marine Advanced Technology Education (MATE) Center, a national network of community colleges, high schools, universities, research institutions, marine industries, employers, and working professionals. MATE's mission is to use information from industry to improve marine technical education and help prepare America's future workforce for ocean-related occupations. Established in 1997 with funding from the National Science Foundation, the MATE Center is headquartered at California's Monterey Peninsula College and led by Jill Zande.

The MTS ROV Committee's Scholarship Recipient was Karl-Magnus W. McLetche, who is is currently pursuing a Masters degree in Ocean Engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Looking Forward to Next Year
Underwater Intervention is scheduled to be held in the Morial Convention Center through the year 2010. The Convention Center will easily accommodate the continued growth of the world's leading conference for underwater contracting and commercial diving.

UI 2004 will be held Monday-Wednesday, February 17-19, 2004. Many booths have already been reserved. For information on reserving booth space, contact Ross Saxon at 1-800-316-2188.

Technical Program Chairman Howie Doyle is accepting abstracts for 2004. Authors interested in presenting their work can email a 100-word abstract to hdoyle@doylepublishing.com.