OWIB gathers the offshore wind industry (Denmark)

The world’s largest networking event for the international offshore wind industry takes place on November 17 in Denmark.

This November international businesses in design, production, setting-up and operation of offshore wind turbines gather at the OWIB – the Offshore Wind International Business2Business Event – to discuss opportunities for collaboration on future offshore wind projects.

OWIB is organized by the Danish knowledge and innovation centre Offshore Center Danmark by 17 November in the offshore city Esbjerg. It is an annual event where operators, producers, suppliers, service companies, energy companies and consultants can meet with selected businesses or international industry organizations to discuss future projects, exchange experience or look for new suppliers. At the event last year participants from 6 nations had more than 200 meetings in one single day; these meetings were coordinated by Offshore Center Danmark based on wishes from the participants.

“The wind industry is growing rapidly, and by far the major part of the wind farms today are established offshore. Our business event will give all players in the market the opportunity to meet potential partners, advisers and customers in an informal setting to discuss, for instance, specific projects and overall agreements on collaboration,” says Manager, Renewables Morten Holmager from Offshore Center Danmark.

“The trend in offshore wind projects is that they grow bigger and bigger and are established under more demanding conditions than earlier projects, so there’s a need to have collaboration across borders to optimize things,” Morten Holmager adds.

This is the fourth year running that Offshore Center Danmark host the business event. At last year’s event many meetings led to specific agreements about collaboration; thus the OWIB event has developed into a European offshore industry rendezvous. The energy companies DONG Energy and Vattenfall plus the wind turbine producers Vestas and Siemens Wind Power will be represented, and suppliers and industry people will have plenty of opportunities to meet some of the major players in European offshore wind turbine projects.

“OWIB is neither a conference nor a fair. It’s a unique networking event where we give the industry ample opportunity to meet potential suppliers, customers and cooperative partners and present their companies or new products just by spending 1 day together. Later on the representatives can arrange more formal meetings with selected customers or cooperative partners. At traditional conferences and fairs it’s often hard to get to talk to the right people. However, at the OWIB event we plan people’s meetings in advance; that way we make sure that they can spend time with the people they are interested in talking to,” says Manager, Renewables Morten Holmager from Offshore Center Danmark.

OWIB 2010 is promoted all over Europe and the US, and Morten Holmager is hoping for the same positive feedback as he received last year where one representative summarized what he had gained in this way:

“We joked about the OWIB event being a kind of speed dating for the wind turbine industry, but it’s very valuable to meet that many people from the industry in such a short time.”

Offshore Center Danmark is the national knowledge and innovation centre for the Danish offshore industry. Since its inception in 2003 the centre has organized conferences and networking events and initiated development projects to strengthen development and employment in the offshore sector. Participation in international collaboration projects such as POWER cluster and South Baltic OFFER brings about a strong focus on opportunities for international collaboration.

You can sign up for the Offshore Wind International Business2Business Event and find further information at www.owib.dk. Closing date is October 16.

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Source: offshorecenter, September 20, 2010