Curtain falls on an OTC dented by delta
The Offshore Technology Conference came to a close Thursday with organizers declining to release attendance figures for the first time in the convention’s 52year history.
Organizers said late Thursday that they were not disclosing attendance this year because the ongoing pandemic would provide an unfair comparison with previous years. Chronicle reporters were told as recently as Tuesday by OTC Executive Director Leigh Ann Runyan that the convention would make in-person and virtual attendance numbers public on Thursday.
“Though we will continue to strive to be the most prominent offshore energy event, we know bigger does not always mean better,” Runyan said in a blog post published Thursday. “Despite a reduced footprint this year, OTC spurred valuable networking and interpersonal connections among exhibitors, attendees and panelists.”
OTC appeared poised for a major comeback after the rollout of coronavirus vaccines and rising oil prices, but the highly infectious delta variant dashed hopes for a packed, in-person convention. The offshore conference is the largest business convention in Houston, known as the Super Bowl of Oil.
Attendance figures are a closely
watched metric that in part is a reflection of the health of the energy industry — the region’s primary economic engine — as well as the convention and hospitality sectors.
This year’s OTC was expected to draw about 30,000 attendees, but a wave of hotel room cancellations and the absence of some of Houston’s largest oil companies suggest that attendance could have been far less than anticipated.
Even before the pandemic, annual attendance at OTC had been declining for five consecutive years after oil busts in 2014-16 and 2018 hammered the sector and forced mass layoffs. The conference, usually held in May, drew 59,200 in 2019 and 61,300 in 2018, compared to a record 108,300 attendees in 2014 when oil prices were hovering around $100 a barrel. Last year, the conference was postponed and ultimately canceled because of the pandemic.
In the days leading up to OTC’s opening on Monday, hotels reported a wave of cancellations as coronavirus cases spiked in Houston. Three days before OTC was set to kick off, Schlumberger, the world’s largest oil field services company, pulled out of the conference, citing the rise in local hospitalization rates due to COVID-19.
Other major offshore service companies, such as Halliburton, Weatherford and NOV, did not have a physical booth at the conference this year. Schlumberger and Halliburton instead hosted virtual booths online. Exhibitors that did show, including Saudi Aramco, Fluor and McDermott, barely filled one of the three spacious halls that in previous years were so packed that overflow tents were pitched outside to accommodate more.
“Certainly, it looked like things were coming back and looking good before delta hit,” said Jason Draper, an associate professor researching the convention business at the Hilton Hotel College at the University of Houston. “Event planners have had to evolve and use their creativity with this new challenge.”
OTC for the first time in its half-century history held a hybrid in-person and virtual conference to accommodate the tens of thousands of attendees who couldn’t or wouldn’t travel to the show because of the pandemic. Some attendees logged into panel discussions, visited exhibitor booths and even networked with others at the convention — all through their laptop or mobile device.
Draper said the virtual and hybrid conferences are important to keep industry professionals engaged and in the habit of participating in conventions so that they may hopefully return in person once the pandemic ends.
He also said it’s important for business conferences to adapt to changing industries. Oil and gas, in particular, faces mounting pressure to change business models and operations in the face of growing concerns about climate change. OTC this year included more than a dozen panels on renewable energy and the environment, including offshore wind.
Yet virtual attendees and evolving topics haven’t helped Houston’s hospitality industry, which relies heavily on business travelers and tourists. OTC’s declining attendance amid the pandemic raises questions about the upcoming World Petroleum Congress, the so-called Olympics of Oil, scheduled to take place in December in Houston.
“There’s a tremendous ripple effect for the hospitality and the local economy,” Draper said. “When you have a big event like OTC, people coming here need hotel rooms, places to eat, attractions like museums, shopping and baseball games. They need transportation to get to places. Once people feel comfortable traveling again and restrictions continue to open up, hopefully we emerge from the pandemic and that things will go back to normal and we’ll get more of that impact for the local economy.”