If you were fortunate enough to have visited this year’s edition of the Oilfield Technology Conf — correction, Offshore Technology Conference — you may have been struck by the thought that some — let’s face it, a lot — of the technology on display was only marginally related to offshore-specific operations. But that’s not necessarily a bad thing. OTC has become the Home Depot of the global petroleum industry, a one-stop bazaar for all your field development needs regardless of geography or geology, complete with eager clerks standing by to serve. The only thing it needs is a less random organization of the merchandise.
That being the case, here’s a thought that bears considering for at least a millisecond before automatically and not unreasonably rejecting it as insane: as long as the industry goes to the trouble and considerable expense to erect the world’s most stupendous supply store, why tear it down after only four days?

Wait, don’t turn the page — there are precedents. Take design centers, as they are called. The trade can eyeball current items of décor in a permanent building, at its convenience, without having to schedule a trip to who knows where to coincide with the temporary appearance of the display at some possibly inconvenient point in the future.

Think of it another way — if OTC is an attraction for four days, why not make it an attraction year-round (OK, in Houston a half year with summers excluded)? Maybe you’d prefer to check out the newest in December, when business slows. Or go to OTC on your honeymoon. The exhibition is practically an amusement park already; the image is especially striking outside. It’s not much of a stretch to imagine a carnival barker, cigar bobbing in teeth, hawking tickets to sit in a 21st century driller’s cockpit and trip pipe using trick automated pipe-handling gear. “Watch out — don’t swab the hole!” cries the voice in the speaker just before the alarm goes off and you lose your turn.

On a less frivolous level, turn it into a mini-university for teaching and research. Give unaware students a larger time window than three hours on Thursday morning once a year to contemplate the industry’s (and many of the world’s) greatest engineering accomplishments. For that matter, the exhibition would surely be a powerful tool to educate the general public about what the industry actually is up to. If the general public could see it. Which it can’t. Except for snippets on local news outlets.

With the OTC mother ship permanently docked, smaller craft could be sent out in all directions in the form of specialized regional exhibitions, conferences, and educational initiatives — physical and electronic — in the same manner that Home Depot does tile installation classes. Continuing education credits could be offered (to engineers, not tile installers), and perhaps ultimately degrees granted.

Admittedly there would be hurdles. The concept would require some consolidation in the exhibition business, but nothing that isn’t going on in other parts of the industry. And then there would be the occupational health authorities’ inevitable position that a permanent OTC is a criminal abuse of sales and marketing departments.

Finally, consider how much a certain trade journal editor’s thought processes degrade after only three days (and nights) of OTC…