It may be a cause for celebration by some, especially if you are in the events business, but increasingly a tunnel engineer’s response to the show season is a reluctant acceptance. This is invariably followed by contemplation of how the increasingly crowded calendar of events is going to be covered, whether due to limitations on time or money.
One cannot argue with success, and there is an obvious demand for leading events such as the three-yearly Bauma construction plant show, with its significant tunnelling content, and for major niche events such as the Rapid Excavation and Tunnelling Conference (RETC) in San Diego this month. The larger the event, providing it covers what you want, the more likely you are to meet useful new people and learn new things. As for smaller events, how often do we all see the same faces, talk about the same things, and meet those (usually individual consultants) who complain about the high cost of unsubsidised travel and hotels? Although many who serve on organising committees, or those who are reluctant to show apparent commercial weakness, don’t want to admit it, there is a definite whiff of events fatigue in the atmosphere. It is not just a matter of clashes of dates but an overall demand on international resources which smaller organisations or individuals find it difficult to cope with.
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There is a clear case for rationalisation, but it is not an easy task when some small niche conferences are successful in their own terms, while more grandiose exhibitions fail to meet their potential. It is too easy to leave to market forces since, although money, or lack of it, is a powerful influence, there is a natural tendency to feel that your company or yourself simply has to be there, or you will be missed. Consequently a false demand is created and prices go up. In the broader field of construction machinery exhibitions the cycle of large events was regularised by difficult negotiations prompted largely by manufacturers organisations.
What can the tunnelling market do? The representative organisations usually organise their own events and are naturally reluctant to let that go, and there is little in the way of specialist manufacturers organisations with enough power. In the absence of organised ‘customer’ power, would it be too much to ask the international organisations such as the ITA and ISTT to open serious negotiations on the subject, or at least be careful how many conferences and exhibitions they endorse. Hopefully the lack of an official ‘international’ tag for largely national events will deter others from jumping on the gravy train, make the business of technical communications more affordable, and allow the industry to concentrate on the real business of underground construction.
