Software for the future

"How can software help organisations prepare for the next wave", was one of the main topics at this year's DNV Software Conference held 17-18 June at Høvik. Among the highlights were the keynote speech from technical director DNV Energy, Kim Mørk, focusing on market outlook, and the presentation by Ole Gustavsen, architect and managing director of Snøhetta, talking about how to be in the forefront of innovation. The presentations were followed by the celebration of Sesam's 40 years in the market.

"I am very pleased to welcome you to this two days conference with focus on software innovation, design, safety, operation and the environment" said Bjørn Berger, host of the software conference and regional manager EMEA, DNV Software. "With interesting topics on the agenda in the common session before lunch and parallell sessions after lunch covering Nauticus ship engineering and Sesam offshore engineering, follow,ed by dedicated software workshops on day two we hope you will all enjoy and benefit from this year's conference."

Preparing for the next wave
In the first keynote speech, Ketil Aamnes, global sales & marketing director DNV Software, outlined DNV Software's slogan - Best Engineering Practice. DNV has 145 years of experience in managing risk and with our vision to make a global impact for a safe and suistainable future, DNV has a strong environmental involvement. 2009 has been a good year for DNV so far, but we can see the clouds, it is tough out there.

Target industries for DNV Software are the maritime and energy sectors, with focus on design and maintenance. It is vital to start on the right track using the right design tools, it is expensive to go back and fix things. Organisations are preparing for the next wave, is software part of your strategy to prepare?

"We have tools which can help you make your engineering processes more efficient," concluded Ketil Aamnes.

To the right, Kim Mørk, technical director, DNV Energy, talking about market outlook.

Market outlook
Kim Mørk, Technical director DNV Energy said there will be a change in the energy industry the next 30 years, and we must be prepared. There is an expected long term energy demand growth, due to a larger population, more people living in the cities and the climate change. With the expected oil production peak in 2016, we have to look at other energy sources. Renewables like wind and waves will be important, but where and how to explore? With oil prizes going up there will be more investment and more activity, and also with the exploration of the artic being a more challenging enviroment, we will need more software.

Forefront of innovation
Snøhetta is the well known Norwegian architects behind the library in Alexandria, Egypt, and the new opera house in Oslo. "It's all about dedicated people and teamwork," said Ole Gustavsen, managing director of Snøhetta. Diversity in a group gives different skills and opinions and thereby positive energy. It is about finding, developing and keeping talent, the last part being the hardest. You have to dare to go into difficult things and you need good relations and support to be in the forefront of innovation. Invite someone else into your work to widen your perspective, 'think out of the box' - be different!

Sesam 40 years
Especially invited to this part of the program were people who had been involved in Sesam from the first launch in 1969. "The best year of Sesam was 2008" said Ketil Aamnes in the introduction before running the brand new Sesam video giving a virtual tour through Sesam's 40 years of development and use.

Shøhetta's Ole Gustavsen discussing further during lunch.

Nauticus ship engineering
In the separate Nauticus ship engineering track software offerings for ship design were presented; with focus on the Nauticus Yard Package, Nauticus Hull and Nauticus Early Design. Tor Skogan, vice president, Moss Maritime, presented technology for FSRU conversion projects, while environmental requirements from an Owner for the ship design were covered by Petter Chr. Jønvik, Wilh. Wilhelmsen ASA. Octavi Sadó Garriga, DNV Advisory Services followed with an interesting lecture on how new environmental requirements will affect the ship design and what will the technology challenges be.

Sesam offshore engineering
Those following the Sesam offshore engineering track, were first introduced to Sesam status and plans before Gerhard Ersdal, The Petroleum Safety Authority Norway (PSA) talked about assessment of offshore structures for life extension. Jens Ulfskjær Andersen, DNV Energy, covered advanced analysis of jacket structures exposed for wave load on deck, followed by Jan Wigaard, Aibel, who presented new and ongoing projects with focus on their use of Sesam today, and thoughts for future use and development. Finally 'Sesam - the KBR Way' was presented by Don Sparry, KBR, before the closing panel discussion on engineering challenges for the future and implications for software tools.

In the evening dinner was served at the Veritas park. In beautiful summer weater by the Oslo fjord, a nice barbeque was enjoyed along with social mingling acompagnied by big band music from Føyka Storband.

Discussions, workshops and dinner with beautiful sea view in the Veritas park.

On the second day of the conference, various software workshops and training sessions were arranged, addressing relevant topics within the maritime and offshore industry. The workshops were a combination of hands-on training, lectures and discussions, to give the users more in-depth knowledge and understanding of our latest product innovations and give us valuable feedback on their user needs.

In addition to training courses around the globe as an arena for knowledge sharing, our user conferences are a key to make sure we are aligned with the customers' software needs. We received positive feedback from the participants and would like to take the opportunity to thank all those who have been attending and contributing in order to again make the software conference a success.

Check out our scheduled list of events for an update on future user conferences and exhibitions.

View more images from the conference.