News

December 2007

I knew it was going to be cold in Sweden, but living in Arizona I have forgotten what cold really is. Oslo was really, really bitter. However, it was warmed by my good friends Mark and Marie Green who run a Human Factors company in Norway and we had a great time of collaborating and sharing some festive grog (as the Australians say). We also did this very novel thing they do over there, we went for a hike in the woods, which was topped by a very nice cup of tea at the end of the trail and Swedish waffles.

We visited one of the Shell jobs they are working on and compared notes on the Large Screen Displays they are using as most of our current control rooms are using LSD’s.

The lecture at the Linkoping University went really well. We had quite a few academics and a number of folks from Industry, and a large group from SAAB. It was interesting to be in a Swedish University. The language was different, but the students and themes were very much the same. You know that unique University buzz, hard to describe but fun, intense learning.

The other part of my trip was to Stavanger, Norway and the ifea Alarm Management & Control Room conference where I was honored to present the keynote address. As the Norwegians presented project after project on alarm management and control room design, it was interesting to see their progress. They have one big advantage over the USA, their standards are the best in the world, their human factors application is second to none and as an industry they are doing great things. Congratulations to them as they are showing the rest of the world what can be done. Randi Beathe the organizer from ifea, managed the whole conference organization on her own, which was very impressive and really well organized.

So, what about work? We still have been fitting work into our schedule. I was also in San Francisco, Houston and New Orleans, so my time clock has been really under pressure. Dave has been kicking off a new project in Canada (lots of work in Canada this year). This next week we are leaving for Pittsburg to start a new Pharmaceutical project then I will head back to New Orleans visiting Convent, Louisiana while Dave will be heading back to Canada regarding another new control room project.

We have just been awarded a new job in Poland and are working on potentially a new control room project in Norway which will include staffing assessments. I am interested to see the comparison with USA workers workload. I gave a 4 hour presentation to the site folks while I was there, this looks like a great opportunity for us in 2008. Wow, 2008 its hard to get your mind around that!

I want to take this opportunity to thank all the customers and organizations that have used us this year. It has been a great year and we have been all around the world, working in Trinidad, Singapore, Australia, Norway, Sweden, Canada, and the USA. I also want to thank our friends at acuite, Barco, ExperTune, CGM, PAS, Smith LaRock, TipS, UReason for working with us this year. Finally, to the wonderful publishers who have worked with us this year and especially Walt Boyes from Putman Magazine who is a leader and great educator and I am proud to say a friend.

I also want to say hello and Merry Christmas to all my friends in Australia especially Ang for the great recommendation he gave me:-