For free tickets and to learn more about OilComm click here.

 

Mark: Hey, folks let’s learn something new about the oil and gas industry.

All right. Today, we have Mr. Jeffrey Hill with us. How are you doing, Jeffrey?

Jeffrey: Good. How are you, Mark?

Mark: Good. And, Jeffrey and I just couldn’t manage to get in the same city at the same time, so we’re doing this via Skype.

And, Jeffrey, you have an interesting conference coming up, right?

Jeffrey: Yes. We have our OilComm 2016 Conference coming up in Houston next month, October 11th – 13th.

Mark: Yeah. And so, OilComm  is a great conference because it’s literally anybody that has an interest in the communication processes, protocols, software, hardware, technology in oil and gas is in this one room for two days. And it’s great to see so many technology vendors out there and it’s great to see so many people from the oil and gas industry come in to learn and meet these people.

But, Jeffrey, we’re in a low crude price environment which is – which is hurting a lot of the upstream the service companies, why in this low-crude price environment do you think people would have an interest in coming to OilComm 2016?

Jeffrey: Well, because a lot of these technologies and communications and IT network security are all essentially designed to make operations more efficient and also to, you know, improve production. So, it’s a cost cutting measure like tech communications technology IT all of these technologies that we cover at OilComm are considered cost cutting measures like right off the bat because they – they, you know, they improve the way businesses run.

Mark: So, actually the technology is actually helping to lower the cost of running the business?

Jeffrey: Absolutely. Absolutely. And, also to protect, you know, assets including, you know, not just network and data, but to protect physical assets. We have the same professionals that are expected to set up, you know, network security systems and from everything from, you know, when you have guest coming on site to – to a remote location and using the internet when you have crew members using their own handsets or devices, you know, you want to make sure that you’re controlling your communications network properly and, you know, one minor mistake or oversight could cost millions even billions of dollars…

Mark:  Yeah. So, you’re also affecting HS&E, health, safety, and environment which is a major driver in oil and gas industry. That’s pretty cool. So, you’re increasing — decreasing cost increasing production and decreasing lost times incidents, so increase in HS&E metrics.

Jeffrey: Absolutely.

Mark: Now, the other thing I think is really cool is if you’re a vendor out there and you want to figure out how to get in front of people that work in the oil and gas and if you want to meet them, they’re all in one place, right? It would take you a year to go meet all these different oil and gas companies that will be in the room at one time.

Jeffrey: And, we, this year we offered anyone working in the oil and gas to attend the show the free, so they don’t have to pay anything. And, it was extremely helpful this year as, you know, the work force reductions were kind of coming to a close here and that things were starting to stabilize, people are getting their budgets back together again and one of the first things that gets caught is your travel budget, right?

So, it was extremely helpful to not only offer, you know, chance to attend OilComm, but also to attend the full conference all for free. So, if you’re a vendor, you’re – I mean this is the most qualified audience you can have for the oil and gas IT and communications tech professional world, so it’s a…

Mark: Jeffrey, hats off to you, hats off to you and OilComm  for offering to help while people are down right now, so letting people come in free to enjoy this, that is I mean it touches my heart. Thank you very much.

So, if people want to learn more about OilComm, where should they go?

Jeffrey: They should go to the website, www.oilcomm.com. The entire program is there. Our advisory board members are all listed there, they’re the people that help us put together the program.

You know this year we have all – we have a lot of presentations, workshops, you know, certification workshops, hands on training. It’s all happening at the showroom floor. You know we’re not doing like panel sessions or boring sort of sales pitches, it’s all useful information and even tools that you can take with you, we’ve set it up so that you’re walking away from Oil Conn with real knowledge.

Mark: That’s awesome. And, we’ll put a link in the show notes folks so you can just click on the link.

Jeffrey, look, thank you so much for your time today.

Jeffrey: Thank you. You know one thing I want to mention you were talking about health and safety. Another area that we cover at Oil Conn, it’s really important as wearable technologies like your – your fitness trackers. A lot of oil companies are using wearables to track their workers’ health and also to track just the worker themselves.

So, you know, when you’re working out on the rig and there’s like a storm or let’s say, you know, somebody goes overboard or, I mean they’re using this technology to save lives and it’s a really important aspect of what we’re doing. I mean you’ve heard the internet of things connected devices, these are all, you know, areas that we cover at OilComm. We’re really trying to stress as a hot topic this year, so I hope that you all come and join the conversation there.

Mark:  Yeah. And, it is, internet of things, machine learning, big data analytics.  This industry is adopting new technology because it has the quicker I’ve ever seen it. So, one place to be in two weeks is OilComm 2016. I’ll be there. You’re going to make it, Jeffrey?

Jeffrey: Yeah. I’m going to be there every day all day.

Mark:  So, if you see us wandering around, reach out to us and say hi. We love to actually talk to people that watch our video.

So, Jeffrey thanks again for all your time and your help.

Jeffrey: Thank you so much, Mark.

Mark:  Yeah. Folks, I hope this helped. We will see you next time.