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Mark: Hey, folks let’s learn something new about the oil and gas industry.
All right. Today, we’re sitting here with Rick with Rigstar. How are you doing, Rick?
Rick: I’m doing great. Thanks.
Mark: And we’re going to talk about a conference that we go to every year, OilComm. Now, Rick you’re not just somebody that’s going to be at the conference, you’ve actually has been heavily involved with Oil Con for a long time.
Rick: Yeah, absolutely. So, I’ve been – I’ve been a member of the advisory board off and on over the last seven years, about five years on the conference advisory board. I’ve attended – worked for ExxonMobil for ten years. We were the group responsible for telecom on offshore oil rigs and land based rigs and temporary offices, so we’ve attended as a buyer.
When I made my way over to another one of the vendors at the show, I spent two years attending as a vendor. I spent a couple of years attending just as an outside person to the oil and gas industry, but not in telecom and now, I’m going to be back as – as a vendor again. So, kind of a well-rounded experience there attending from all angles.
Mark: Yeah. And so, from your experience if somebody is out there listening and they’re trying to figure out if they want to attend the OilComm, do they want to expend their travel budget, what would you tell them?
Rick: Well, so OilComm is just a two-day conference in Houston. It’s scheduled again this year back at the Houston Westchase Marriott. It’s right in the heart of the energy corridor of Houston on the west end of Houston.
It’s kind of like a one-stop shop, you are able to interface with every primary vendor in the industry from whatever telecom band you like you operate in. But, there’s folks from all the major oil and gas companies and service companies and it’s really an opportunity to get time in front of everybody that are your peers in the industry. It’s a really great value for sure.
Mark: Yeah. And so, you know we’ve been harping a lot on how technology has changed and technology continue to pour into our industry, part of that technology’s ability to work is its ability to communicate to talk and this is what it all comes about all the different venues all the different platforms that you actually can have communications.
So, you may not have attended OilComm in the past, but if you’re involved in any type of technology you need to understand how things talk and that’s what OilComm is a great event for.
Rick: Certainly. And, in OilComm while its primary focus is the telecommunication side of the business, you’re absolutely right there are folks from the cybersecurity point of view. There is going to be folks there from the physical hardware from the overall managed service side.
But, again, the real value comes in in the halls not just in the in the speaking sessions which I think we’ve got over 30 speakers this year from a variety of different country — countries and companies. But, going between the expo floor and the conference sessions or just on the expo floor, you’ll have an opportunity to meet and collaborate with people that are in similar roles in both competitor companies and your service companies and you don’t get a chance to get everybody in one spot very often.
Mark: Yes, that’s the part that we love about this, everybody is there. So, all three podcasts will be there. We would be there as press. We’re recording podcasts from the event.
Now, OilComm pushed out due to the hurricane Harvey, what’s the new date?
Rick: So, December 6th and 7th. Yeah, hurricane Harvey blew it out a few months, but the timing is going to be just right for everyone.
Mark: Yeah. And if people want to learn more about OilComm, where should they go?
Rick: So, OilComm.com, the website. Certainly you’ll find that there’s also another show at the same time called FleetComm if you’re on the fleet side of the business, but all that information is on the website a list of the speaker gallery, a list of the all the exhibitors, and a whole conference agenda as well as the networking events which are again a great way to meet industry colleagues.
Mark: Yeah. So, we’ll put links in the show notes, so you don’t need be writing anything.
Rick, thank you so much for your time today.
Rick: Certainly. Thank you very much. I hope to see everybody at the show.
Mark: Yeah. So, folks I hope this helped. We will see you next time.