The year 2012 will be filled with a number of trenchless events leading up to the 30th International No-Dig Conference and Exhibition next November to be held in Sao Paulo, Brazil. Planning for the first ever International No-Dig in South America is well underway with the Associação Brasileira de Tecnologia não Destrutiva (ABRATT) doing an excellent job in soliciting major sponsorships and exhibitors. I can hardly wait for the event!

This past quarter, I put on thousands of air miles attending events on three continents: Australia, Asia, and Europe. October was especially busy for me with three events occurring during the month. In early October, I attended No-Dig Down Under 2011 in Brisbane, Australia. The event was extremely successful with 67 exhibitors and over 1,000 attendees. I had the opportunity to deliver a re-conference course on HDD, which was attended by 18 people.

The technical sessions were well attended and contained papers mainly from Australia and New Zealand. Dr Tom Iseley delivered the keynote address. The event was highlighted by a river cruise along the Brisbane River and a wonderful gala dinner at the Victoria Golf Complex. Famous Australian cricketer and announcer Kerry O’Keefe served as the guest speaker. Although, I personally did not understand most of his jokes and stories, he was quite entertaining. Once again, the Australasian Society for Trenchless Technology (ASTT) should be commended for hosting an outstanding event. No-Dig Down Under 2011 was also the launch event for the ASTT’s 20th Anniversary book. The book truly captures the remarkable growth of the trenchless industry in the Australasian region. Well done! In 2013 the ISTT No-Dig show will be held in Sydney – put it in your calendar.

Dr Dec Downey and I attended Trenchless Middle East 2011, held in Dubai, UAE. Although the country’s unprecedented growth has cooled off in recent years, the conference grew in size from the last event. There were over 60 exhibitors and 14 technical papers. Dr Downey delivered the keynote address titled, Cured in Place Pipe: Where are we now and where do we go from here. I had the opportunity to meet numerous people from the region and even signed up a few new ISTT members. The next step is to establish an Affiliated Society in the region.

During the last week of October, I attended the 2011 International Conference on Pipelines and Trenchless Technology (ICPTT) in Beijing, China. This event was co-sponsored by the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) and involved over 250 peer-reviewed papers. Dr Tom Iseley delivered an inspirational and thought-provoking keynote address titled, Green Strategic Asset Management Approaches for Buried Treasures. John Hemphill, Derek Choi and Ray Sterling also attended the conference as ISTT representatives. Prior to the conference, the 13th International Trenchless Technology Research Colloquium (ITTRC) was held at a beautiful resort on the outskirts of Beijing.

Baosong Ma from the China University of Geosciences (Wuhan) was the local host of the event co-sponsored by the ISTT. Dr Ma and his team of graduate students were outstanding hosts. In total, 35 researchers attended from China, Canada, Germany, Taiwan, Belgium, United Kingdom, and the United States. The group discussed trenchless research activities and potential collaborations. A emorable trip to the famous Great Wall of China was part of the colloquium activities. Several researchers even made the trek up and down the wall. The 14th ITTRC will be held in Niagara Falls, Canada next June prior to the 2012 Underground Infrastructure Research (UIR) Conference.

In November, John Hemphill, Derek Choi, and I attended the No-Dig Turkey Summit in Istanbul hosted by the Turkish Society for Infrastructure and Trenchless Technologies (TSITT). I was particularly pleased to meet various government officials who attended the event. I participated in a panel discussion and also spoke at a HDD training seminar on the second day of the event. As a new society, TSITT is doing a remarkable job of promoting Trenchless Technology.

This next quarter is fairly light in terms of regional events with only the 2012 No-Dig Conference & Exhibition hosted by the North American Society for Trenchless Technology (NASTT) currently on my calendar. The conference will be held in Nashville, Tennessee, at the historic Opryland Hotel from 11–16 March. I look forward to attending this event of my host society and look forward to seeing many of you in Nashville.

In closing, I am pleased to announce that the 2014 International No-Dig will be hosted by the Iberian Society for Trenchless Technology (IbSTT) in Madrid, Spain, and the 2015 International No-Dig will be hosted by the Turkish Society for Infrastructure and Trenchless Technology (TSITT) in Istanbul, Turkey. Both of these Affiliated Societies had two of the best proposals that we at ISTT have ever seen, and will be hosting the event for the first time. Madrid and Istanbul are two of the most historical and culturally-enriched cities in the world. The ISTT is currently soliciting possible options in the Asian region for the 2016 International No-Dig. Please let us know if you have any preferences.