WEDA Update on Dredging Summit & Expo - April 20, 2020

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April 20, 2020

Hello WEDA colleagues,

I hope this email finds you and your family safe and healthy as we deal with this unfortunate crisis that our country is experiencing. Over the past several weeks we have working diligently to find a viable solution to postpone the 2020 Dredging Summit & Expo to the fall and have not had success. At present, we feel that with the uncertainty as to whether a fall event will be allowed to occur combined with a much smaller projected attendance and huge financial risk to the association, we have decided to forgo the 2020 Expo entirely.

Since we have already contracted for the 2021 Dredging Summit & Expo with the JW Marriott in Tampa, Fl, we have rescheduled the Houston Expo at the Marriott Marquis for July 2022. We express our gratitude for the Houston Marriott for partnering with our association to find a win-win situation for both of us.

We are exploring some ways to jump start our on-line education and experimenting with some virtual content, however, this is still in development and will be rolled out once we have a stable platform and suitable content. Stay tuned for those developments.

Here are the confirmed details for the next two Dredging Summit & Expos.

  • WEDA Dredging Summit & Expo 2021
    • Where: JW Marriott in Tampa, FL (Downtown on Water Street)
    • When: June 14-17, 2021 (Monday set up / Ice Breaker, Thursday tear down / closing session)
  • WEDA Dredging Summit & Expo 2022
    • Where: Marriott Marquis Houston, TX
    • When: July 25 - 28, 2022 (Monday set up / Ice Breaker, Thursday tear down / closing session) 

2020 REGISTERED DELEGATES, EXHIBITORS & SPONSORS

For those of you that have already registered and submitted payments for the 2020 Dredging Summit & Expo, we are pleased to assist you with any of the following options:

  1. Carryover your sponsorship, registration(s) or exhibitor reservations to the 2021 Dredging Summit & Expo in Tampa next June. *Sponsors & Exhibitors will get priority of booth locations once the layout map for 2021 is completed and also have option to continue to hold current booth location for the 2022 show and/or given priority to select from any available booths for Houston.
  2. Carryover your sponsorship, registration(s) or exhibitor reservations over to the 2022 Dredging Summit & Expo in Houston. *Sponsors & Exhibitors will continue to hold their booth location for the 2022 show in Houston.
  3. Issue a full refund back to the method of payment used when the registration was processed. ACH and Bank Transfers payments will need to be refunded via check.
  4. Apply all or a portion of your sponsorship and/or registration towards WEDA Membership at either the individual or sustaining/corporate level. We sincerely appreciate any support during this unprecedented and unpredictable times. 
  5. Apply your sponsorship and/or registration toward scholarship/young member paper awards. 

HOTEL RESERVATIONS

  • All hotel reservations made through the WEDA hotel room blocks will be automatically cancelled this week and you will receive confirmation via email.  No further action is needed.
  • If you reserved your hotel room outside of the WEDA room block or from a third party site, YOU MUST CANCEL your reservation directly with hotel or third party vendor.
  • The reservation links for the 2021 Dredging Summit & Expo will be emailed out and posted on the Hotels Page of the conference website around the end of this year.

2020 WEDA AWARDS

  • One of our primary goals and objectives is to recognize individuals and organizations for outstanding engineering and operational achievements in the field of dredging science and technology. Without a proper awards ceremony and recognition, we have decided to postpone all 2020 WEDA Awards until the next Dredging Summit & Expo in Tampa June 2021. These awards include:
    • Lifetime Achievement Award
    • Dredger of the Year
    • Environmental Excellence Awards
    • Safety Excellence Awards

ABSTRACTS & PAPERS

  • We were looking forward to a great session in Houston with 5 panels, 5 special content sessions, and over 60 technical presentations. If you are one of the accepted authors, you will receive an invitation to present at the 2021 Dredging Summit & Expo. 

We know that our industry is robust, collaborative, and inventive. With these traits we feel optimistic that our future will continue toward the growth and success we experienced prior to the virus once there is a safe resumption of commercial activity. We wish you all the best of health and look forward to serving as your leadership through these troubling times. 

Best Regards, 

 

Alan Alcorn
President, Western Dredging Association
info@WesternDredging.org 

 

Tom Cappellino
Executive Director, WEDA
 tcappellino@WesternDredging.org
(949) 422-8231 - cell

 
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