Process Safety Symposium 2010

The first "Texas A&M University at Qatar Safety Symposium" was held on 15th and 16th March 2010. This year we welcomed Shell, Exxonmobil and QP as our generous sponsors and without their help we could not have produced and delivered the symposium. Our project is to turn this into an annual event that will become an important, and enduring, part of the Education City and Doha professional scene. The symposium is aimed at leading safety specialists from both local industries and from universities and a full house of 125 delegates is expected. Our vision is to let them hear about best practice, about safety success stories, and maybe failures (i.e. accident case studies): there will be ample opportunities to network with fellow professionals during lunch. Whilst the first symposium will concentrate on process and personal safety we see the possibility of expanding it in future years so that it may include, for example, safety themes in other areas such as the environment, shipping, road transport, and construction.

 

Our objective has been to deliver the first symposium at no cost to the delegates, but at the same time to invite speakers of international stature and reputation: this year our speakers are drawn from Qatar, the USA and Europe. They come from major international companies, small specialized consultancies and universities in Qatar, Poland and the USA. Without the help of our sponsors it would not have been possible to gather together such a distinguished panel. The emphasis is very strongly on the technical quality of the program and this is important: we believe that spreading the word about good safety and environmental practice should be part of the responsibilities of Texas A&M University at Qatar and this does not have to be done at high cost in the sumptuous surroundings of a top quality hotel. This is the reason for organizing the Symposium at Texas A&M at Qatar, and this strategy enables us to offer the Safety Symposium to delegates at no cost.