Far Left to far right: GBA President: Guy Marcozzi, AGS Chair: Vivien Dent, GBA treasurer and future GBA President: Teresa Peterson, AGS Geotechnical working group leader: Alex Dent

Last year you may recall that the GBA presented at our annual conference. This year, the AGS Chair, Vivien Dent, and AGS Geotechnical Working Group Chair, Alex Dent, were invited by the GBA to attend their spring conference ‘Champion Excellence’ in Anaheim, USA.

Before the conference started, the GBA held two days of board and committee meetings. Vivien presented an overview of the AGS to the GBA board of Directors meeting to establish potential collaboration between the two trade associations. We have much in common such as a skills shortage, making our industry more inclusive, opportunities presented by climate change and the risks and benefits of cloud based storage and sharing of geotechnical data.

The GBA works similarly to the AGS with voluntary members working in a series of Committees:

1. Business Practice,
2. Business Technology
3. CoMET Business
4. Inclusion advancement committee
5. Emerging issues and trends
6. Environmental business
7. Geotechnical Business
8. Multimedia delivery

We were invited to attend committee meetings with Alex attending the Geotechnical Business Committee and Vivien attending the inclusion advancement committee. The AGS Geotechnical Working Group have been liaising with the GBA Geotechnical Business Committee over the last year and it was good for Alex to meet people in person rather than remotely. It was useful to discover that many of the main concerns they have reflect our own and explore opportunities for collaboration between the two groups.

A session on ‘Committee Chronicles: Tales of Excellence’, provided us with an overview of the work done in these committees over the last year. We were impressed by the dedication of the people in these committees and the work undertaken covered some matters which we can consider for the AGS.

Something which really impressed us was the GBA’s emerging leaders class and their career continuum project which they have set up to tackle the decline of graduates joining the profession. The career continuum project is considered so important, that this is led by one of the GBA Directors, Carrie Foulk, and a copy of the scheme was shared. It would be useful for the AGS to review and consider something similar. Carrie went on to provide an impassioned presentation on this topic at the main conference.

The graduating emerging leaders presented ‘Tiger Cage’ (our equivalent of Dragons Den), where they pitched their idea for ‘Geokits’, resources which had been developed to introduce geotechnical engineering to children.  A copy of the instructions was obtained and can be shared: ideal for school and sixth form STEM visits.

The conference itself started with innovation consultant Diana Kander presenting: Why Curiosity is the ultimate competitive advantage. Vivien found this the most inspirational talk and  came away with 3 rules to implement:

Rule 1 – Don’t ask yes or no. Ask how does this rank on a scale of 1 to 10;

Rule 2 – Kill the Zombies. Ask – what should we stop. Do this once a year; and

Rule 3 – Reimagine what’s possible. Start with a blank sheet of paper. Don’t ask ‘how can I’? ask ‘who can’?

In the afternoon, a series of round table discussions were held. Vivien joined the discussion on ‘opportunities for the geotechnical sector presented by climate change’. Delegates in the discussion group included geotechnical engineers from New Orleans and Alaska and the discussion introduced challenges associated with issues we don’t have in the UK – such as melting permafrost.

The ‘how to network effectively’ round table discussion was also interesting and a list of ways to help introverts network was produced.

Alex joined the ‘can remote sensing deal with the skills shortage’ discussion. It was clear from the discussion that the UK is leaps and bounds ahead of North America on the use of, LiDAR, InSAR, wireless telemetery for monitoring installation and qualitative density measurements during compaction.  Alex then joined the discussion on ‘What advice would you give the 25year old you’ – which resulted in a lively and humorous debate.

There were plenty of opportunities for networking at the conference with networking breakfasts, lunches and evening events. It was clear from these discussions that GBA members are concerned with the retirement of ‘gINT’ and what may replace it, with anxieties over using Openground and the cloud based sharing of geotechnical data. It was evident that the AGS data format is held in high regard. Another strong area of potential collaboration.

The GBA Awards Recognition Banquet celebrated outstanding contributions to the committees and was a great way to acknowledge some of the achievements of GBA members over the past year.

On the last day of the conference, we were treated to an inspiring talk from Jim Abbott, a former league baseball pitcher who overcame a birth defect to become a pro pitcher and ball player, talking about making the most of what you have been given and to believe in who you are and what you can do.

Talks were also given on becoming a champion for our profession for future geoprofessionals and a presentation ‘Into the Unknown: How leadership, ingenuity and perseverance put a rover on Mars’, delivered by Adam Steltzer, leader and chief engineer NASA Mars 202 Mission. Our take home from that was to separate the ideas from the people to avoid unconscious bias.

We have come away from the GBA conference enthused and we are looking forward to our future collaboration with the GBA.

Our trip wasn’t all work and no play. The conference venue was next to Disneyland California! On a free day we got to fly the Millennium Falcon and meet R2D2 before being captured by the ‘First Order’ – thankfully managing to escape the clutches of the Evil Sith Lord ‘Kylo Ren’ and his stormtroopers.

Article provided by Vivien and Alex Dent (AGS Chair and Chair Geotechnical Working Group)