Take Me To Texas #conclave2026

So about 2 years ago I started ad hoc working for an American company called The Competency Alliance, formerly known, and now reknown, as PetroSkills.  They are an oil and gas training company, and pretty much seem to do a lot of what the Don and SLB essentially do/did? in their training centres in Abu Dhabi and Paris.  Except obviously not for SLB but for 22 companies that don't have their own training centres. I'm sure there's a whole lot more to it - including competency maps! - but you know, I don't really need to know!

I got the job through a friend, and initially I was just editing and publishing online training courses. It brought in a bit of holiday money and was a lovely 10-20 hours a month. Eighteen months ago I was then approached by my now boss to help with the administration, organisation and running of these Conclaves. Conclave is the annual invitation-only conference for member companies of TCA. It focuses on sharing best-practices, innovative learning strategies, and technical solutions for workforce development across the energy sector and serves as a collaborative, in-person (and virtual) gathering to address industry challenges through presentations, panels, workshops and networking. Simples.

Conclave 2025 was split into two, with the first in-person event taking place in Houston in February 2025 (which I did not attend), and the second in-person and virtual event taking place in Richmond, London in May (which I did). This year we just held this one event - but next year it's looking likely to be two again, most likely Houston and The Haague. 

Anyway, this year's event took place in the San Luis Resort, Spa & Leisure Centre on Galveston Island, about 40 minutes south east of Houston.  As with all events I was pretty much stuck in the hotel and conference centre from 6am till 10pm each day, though I did insist on eating lunch by the pool and actually seeing the sun on a couple of the days, and we got down to the historic seaport for a social one evening too. I didn't mind quite so much because I knew I had the chance to socialise and visit Galveston once the event was all over, but it is a bit galling to know there is sun and warmth out there but you're stuck inside an area with no windows and in a jumper because of flamin' air conditioning!

I really must remember to take photos of the actual event next year... and use them in social media pushes.  Sheesh, always additional work that could be done...