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Next ITA technical conference to be in Istanbul

In 2009 the ITA will be celebrating its 30th anniversary of service to the industry. Co-inciding with this landmark in the ITA’s history will be its major biennial conference that will take place in Istanbul in late autumn 2009.

Since its foundation the ITA has organised over 40 technical conferences, seminars and symposiums. Istanbul will join a distinguished list of recent venues like Dnipropetrovsk, Prague, Vera Cruz, Bilbao and Toronto for the most important conference in the association’s two-year timetable of technical events.

An important part of the Istanbul conference will be a celebration and recognition of the ITA’s 30th anniversary. Details of this will appear in the next edition of ITAN.

In preliminary discussions with leading organisations in the Turkish industry there has been an enthusiastic welcome for the choice of Istanbul. Its geographical location, with a foot in both Europe and Asia and ease of travelling to and from makes Istanbul ideal to attract potential delegates from Europe, the CIS and former Soviet Union republics, the Arab States and the Middle East, India and Africa. It is expected that the conference will be conducted in Turkish, Russian and English.

There are important and developing industries in the tube and pipe sectors, which should result in a healthy local attendance, notwithstanding the anticipated high level of interest from other countries in the region. The growth rate in the Turkish economy was approaching 10% last year and recent tube industry data indicates that exports by Turkish companies increased significantly in 2007, particularly in the energy sector. The market potential for prospective speakers and tabletop exhibitors will be excellent.

There are excellent prospects for local sponsorship and support, in particular from the enormous Ihlas Group with its extensive media resources, including the trade magazine BORU. Its daughter company Ihlas Fuar is the organiser of the BORU tube exhibition and has offered its full support for the conference. Local costs are competitive with other major European cities and good quality hotel accommodation is certainly better value and cheaper than many other major cities. The city of Istanbul itself is an attractive venue to visit with ample opportunities for sightseeing tours.

The ITA will be issuing a call for papers later this year but any tube or pipe organisations interested in participating by offering a paper, reserving a tabletop exhibit or sponsoring the conference are invited to contact the Secretariat.