An industry united: highlights from IGEM's Annual Conference 2024

The East Midlands Conference Centre played host to this year’s eagerly anticipated Annual Conference. With a focus on how we can work and stand together as one sector, IGEM President David Tomkin set the scene for the day ahead.

He said: “We need to work on unity, collaboration and learn to rely on each other. Trust is our collective foundation and something we must work hard to protect. We need to ensure everyone has the tools and knowledge to provide honest and correct information.”

Following, the room heard from Dan Micklethwaite, Director of Energy Security and Resilience at the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero, delivering a keynote speech.

Then it was time to dive into the first session of the day which looked at ensuring safety across the gas industry. This session featured insights from Karl Simons OBE on artificial intelligence in business and how we can learn from incidents from Mike Johnson.

The second session addressed how we can meet the needs of end users with knowledge sharing on a people's perspective of net zero, the end user marketing funnel, hydrogen transition for end users and a flexible generation journey. This session's experts included Catharine Skinner, Ian Swindlehurst, Dr Navdeep Singh and Helen Fitzgerald.

Then it was time for a lunch break which offered ample opportunities to network and visit the exciting exhibition.

Exploring further details on how we can align gas with the energy landscape, session three kicked off with an in depth look at NESO and strategic whole energy system planning from Angus Paxton.

Attendees also heard from Professor Goran Strbac on the importance of delivering a multi-energy system in support of a cost-effective net zero and Eva Hennig on joint infrastructure planning.

The final session of the day looked at how we can innovate and collaborate for tomorrow's challenges and featured presentations on collaborative strategies, maximimising green gas and working together to enhance skills and education. Delivering powerful messages the round off the day were Matt Hindle, Nic Crowe and IGEM's Sayda Lees-Manning.

Closing the conference, IGEM's Oliver Lancaster summarised the collective thoughts from across the day, thanked speakers, attendees, sponsors, exhibitors and the secretariat for putting the successful day together.

Thanks to our sponsors: Cadent, National Gas, Northern Gas Networks, SGN and Wales & West Utilities.

And to our exhibitors: Abriox, AUTOMA, AVK UK, Blackline Safety, Energy & Utility Skills, FT Gas Control, Kane International Limited, Overpipe UK, Radius Subterra, Radius Systems, ROSEN, Steve Vick International, Teledyne Gas and Flame Detection, UIS Tooling & Technologies and Utonomy.