Uptime’s Guide to Upcoming Wind Energy Events

Allen and Joel discuss the best conferences in the wind industry in
the upcoming months. Across the world, the wind industry is coming
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today. Now here's your hosts, Allen Hall, Joel Saxon, Phil Totaro,
and Rosemary Barnes.  Allen Hall: Welcome to the Uptime
Wind Energy Podcast. I'm your host Allen Hall, and I'm. Here with
Joel Saxum, who's up in Wisconsin, and Joel and I have been talking
back and forth about all the conferences that we need to attend,
and it's going to be that time of year. We need to be planning for
the end of your conferences in 25. And then getting, uh, your
registrations in for conferences in 2026. It's coming up fast,
Joel.  Joel Saxum: Yeah, I know. This is the time of year
where like blade season is over. A lot of the heavy repair season
is over. MCE work starts to get a little bit touch and go depending
on where you are. We're getting into September, October. It starts
to snow here soon in some places in the northern,
uh, [00:01:00] latitudes. So it's also coinciding with
that is the time when companies starts. Spooling up their budgets
for 26. And those budgets are operations and maintenance budgets.
They also include for, you know, depending on the team, you're on,
engineering asset management. It, it is conference budgets and
it's, uh, you know, these things aren't cheap. Uh, so that's one of
the complaints that we have globally about a lot of these
conferences is, uh, you know, some of 'em are getting up to, it
used to be a couple hundred dollars to get in. Now they're 1500.
2000. I even heard of one to 2,500 to get in the door, which is. A
bit extreme. So if I could say anything to the, uh, conference
organizers, please stop raising the prices. But like Allen said,
it's that time of year to start planning these things. 'cause it's
conference, the fall conference season starts kicking back off, uh,
at a global way. So, uh, we're gonna walk through some of those
conferences and, uh. Can I share with you our thoughts and the
knowledge that we have around some of 'em and where we'll be? Allen
Hall: Yeah. And the, the first one on the list is one that
it's just gonna pass by the time this podcast comes out, which is
hu Some [00:02:00] and Hu Some's the big energy
conference in Germany. And uh, it is. Just massively popular. It
has been the, uh, counterpart to, uh, Hamburg every year. So the
alternate year to year. So everybody that goes to Hamburg tends to
go to Husam, and whoever goes to Husam tends to go to Hamburg. It's
a great place. There's a ton of technology there, and anybody
that's of interest in wind needs to go there at least once in their
lifetime and see it.  Joel Saxum: Yeah, it's like a, it's
a wind mecca. Conference. So when we talk Huso, usually it's more
focused on onshore. Hamburg is more focused on offshore, uh, which
is really cool to see. Of course, most companies that are playing
in these spaces are dabbling in a little bit of both, whether
you're an ISP or you're an operator or a financier, whatever it may
be. But this is one of those conferences that Allen and I regularly
tell people specifically from the North American market, if you
haven't been over to the European conferences, the big
European [00:03:00]conferences. You should go, um, just to see
what kind of technology, what they're doing, what's a little bit
different. Have some conversations with some different mindsets
around operations and maintenance or development, or whether it's
greenfield, brownfield, whatever it may be. Because the Europeans
are, you know, they've been in wind longer than we have over here
in, in the North America, so they have some different ways of doing
things and different technologies. We always come back from there
with, uh, some good context. I would say that. So, uh, encourage
people to travel over there for that one.  Allen
Hall: October is when the conference season for companies
begins. There's a lot of user forums happening. Two in particular
that, uh, we have been paying attention to the last couple years
and participated in. One is the Sky Specs user forum, or customer
forum, which is happening October 7th and eighth up in Ann Arbor,
Michigan. Joel and I will be there again this year. Hosting some
panels, uh, talking a little bit about lightning protection, uh,
part in most of the us uh, most of their customers are in the US
but [00:04:00] the Sky Specs event is really, really
good. If you're interested in optimum maintenance schedules for
your turbines, what's going on with blades and new blades that are
out in service? What's happening there? It's the way to connect
with the industry, at least in the US It is, yeah. This year, the,
the,  Joel Saxum: the focus of the event is predict.
Prevent perform. Um, so that they're gonna talk through a lot of
the different, uh, solu solutions that Skys spec has. And it's not
really a sales conversation, so I don't wanna say that, but it's,
it's how these things fit. It's what can be done. And we've been,
we were there last year as well. And it is, just to be clear, it is
an invite only event. So if you would like to go shoot us an email,
um, and we could probably get you in there. But the conference is.
Very focused on how to solve problems. You have this problem, this
is how you solve it. We're looking at this strategy, this is how
you implement it. Um, we've, we've ran into this issue at say, end
of warranty. This is how you do these things. Um, and it is
a, [00:05:00] I really like it because it's an, it's an
intimate setting. There's, you know, 50, 60 people there, and it's
all engineers, asset managers from a, from. Uh, you know, scada
engineers do blade engineers. It's, it's the group of some of the
smartest people in wind. Um, a lot of 'em from the US and North and
North American general. Uh, but yeah, that event, um, we really
like that one. So we'll be up there in Ann Arbor, uh, October 7th
and eighth for sure.  Allen Hall: The other one, which is
really popular is the Onyx event in Colorado, and it's in the
middle of October, October 14th and 15th. That also, I think that's
an invite only event, Joel, is that right? Joel Saxum: Yeah.
You got to reach out to Onyx. Um, we, we don't deal with that team
directly usually, so if you wanna try to get into that one, you're
on your own.  Allen Hall: Yeah. But I hear great things
from it, people that have attended that event. Love it and have
usually attend it quite frequently, every year. Uh, if, especially
if you're needing some CMS help or some, uh, specific things with
there, there's a lot of, uh, onyx [00:06:00] systems on a
number of turbines, so it came delivered that way. If you need help
or insights as to what is actually happening with your turban, uh,
it's a good place to go. Onyx, we've had him on the podcast. Smart
people, a good resource, and you should think about going there.
The, the first real big open event, uh, in terms of wind energy,
particularly o and m, is the wind summit event in Houston, which is
the first annual event, October 14th and 15th. Joel
Saxum: Yeah. So that one, uh, down in Houston, I believe it as
the, is at the Asian Society, so downtown, um, near the medical
center. Uh, it is going to be a lot of, uh, some of the same MA
material that we're familiar with from our Melbourne conference
last year. So, uh, again, a lot of value add. You can leave this
event, um. Learning something, something you can bring back to your
team to uh, be able to implement to help in the future. And, uh,
Allen and I, uh, as well as Rosemary here on the podcast, uh, of
course [00:07:00] plus Phil Phil's about organizing this
one. Uh, mostly uh, we will be presenting, we'll be hosting some
panels moderating, um, and sharing some insights. So that one is in
Houston the same time as Onyx is, uh, going on up in
Colorado.  Allen Hall: Yeah, the Wind Summit event, you
can actually find online@windsummit.org. You can check out the
events happening there. Uh, and then Joel and I are look, going to
attend or try to attend two events at the same time. I'm not sure
how we're gonna pull that one off, but UK Offshore Wind Supply
Chain Spotlight in Edinburgh, Scotland is December 11th, and just
before that one is the Mi Plastics, uh, wind Turbine Blades Europe
event, which is more of a supply. Chain for blades, and that's in
Dusseldorf, and I haven't been to the Dusseldorf event before.
However, uh, everybody I talk to that has. Spin to that. Loves it
and returns to it if you need anything in terms of sourcing
materials, what's, uh, about to come out in terms of new resin
systems, new kinds of fibers, new [00:08:00] technology,
uh, things in the factory to make blades, uh, quicker, lower cost.
All that happens in Juel, Dorf Plus, uh, you get to, I think a lot
of the OEM blade designers are there, so you can actually cross
paths with the people that are designing blades. It's a, it is a
good place to meet. Dusseldorf, uh, in December should be really
nice. All the Christmas activities will be in full force. It should
be a good time, but, you know, be prepared. It's gonna be a little
bit chilly, I'm afraid, Joel.  Joel Saxum: Yeah. But I
think, uh, uh, at the same time as well,