Reynolds Wrap Up: Highlights from the 2017 API Inspection Summit

I hope you made it to the sixth biennial Inspection Summit in Galveston in February. It was another big success, as evidenced by the comments we got back on the critique sheets. The vast majority circled “above average” or “excellent” to most of our questions on the critique sheet. That’s certainly gratifying to the committee that put in hundreds of volunteer hours planning the Summit. We set another attendance record with 1406 registered attendees, all of whom had to choose among nearly 200 different presentations over the three day span. The 12 panel discussions with leading industry experts were a big hit. All of them completely filled the allotted time with many questions from the audience and several people commented that they would have liked even more time for Q&A. The Monday Training Day proved to be popular again with good participation. Let us know if you can think of some other training topics to add next time.

The vast majority of attendees liked holding the Summit in the Galveston Convention Center, so we will likely hold it there again in two years. A couple people suggested Vegas – that won’t happen! We received numerous other good comments and suggestions on the critique sheets with which we will endeavor to improve the program. In spite of our best efforts a few presenters (very few) strayed into mentioning their commercial products and services during their presentation. That’s clearly forbidden. We will work even harder next time to prevent that from happening. The exhibition hall is the only place we want commercial promotions going on. That’s the purpose of the exhibition hall, which was also well attended and appreciated. Most people liked the Summit App, but some commented that there were too many errors. We will work even harder next time to improve the App and advertise it better.