2021 WEDA Dredging Summit & Expo is going virtual

I hope this email finds you, your family, and your colleagues safe and healthy as our association continues to navigate and evolve during this ongoing pandemic. Last week, the WEDA Board met and unanimously voted to go virtual with the 2021 Dredging Summit & Expo and postpone the in-person Tampa conference. This decision was based upon several factors of which safety was paramount. We are confident that going virtual this June is the only sensible path going forward to ensure the health and safety of all of our members and affiliates.

The 2021 Virtual Dredging Summit will consist of a series of technical and award presentations on June 15, 16, and 17th from 1 to 5 EST. Registration information will be distributed out later this month.

You can add Virtual Dredging Summit to your calendar using one of the links below:

We rescheduled the Tampa in-person Expo for June 2024 due to the already rescheduled Houston Expo for 2022, and the JW Marriott’s unavailability to host the expo in 2023. Here are the upcoming Dredging Summit & Expos:

• Virtual Dredging Summit 2021
  • Where: Zoom 
  • When: June 15, 16 & 17, 2021 from 1 to 5 PM EST

• Dredging Summit & Expo 2022
  • Where: Marriott Marquis in downtown Houston, TX
  • When: July 25 – 28, 2022

• Dredging Summit & Expo 2023
  • Where: TBD
  • When: TBD

• Dredging Summit & Expo 2024
  • Where: JW Marriott in downtown Tampa, FL
  • When: June 24-27, 2024

2021 REGISTERED DELEGATES, EXHIBITORS & SPONSORS

For those of you that have already registered and submitted payments for either the 2020 or 2021 in-person Dredging Summit & Expo’s, we are happy to assist you with any of the following options:

1. Make a 100% tax-deductable donation of all or a portion of your registration fees to help WEDA endure these difficult times.
2. Become a sustaining member of WEDA. Use all or a portion of your registration fees towards a corporate sustaining membership.
3. Carryover your sponsorship, registration(s), or exhibitor reservations to the 2022 Dredging Summit & Expo in Houston next July. *Sponsors & Exhibitors that carryover registrations will get priority booth locations for the 2022 Houston Expo.
4. Issue a full refund back to the method of payment used when the registration was processed. ACH and Bank Transfers payments will need to be refunded via check.

HOTEL RESERVATIONS

• All hotel reservations made within the WEDA hotel room block were automatically canceled.  No further action is needed.
• If you reserved your hotel room outside the WEDA room block or from a third-party site, YOU MUST CANCEL your reservation directly with a hotel or third-party vendor.
• The reservation links for the 2022 Dredging Summit & Expo will be emailed out and posted on the conference website’s Hotels Page towards the end of the year.

2021 WEDA AWARDS

• One of our primary goals and objectives is to recognize individuals and organizations for outstanding engineering and operational achievements in dredging science and technology. In 2021 we will be accepting nominations and presenting awards for:
  • Best Paper Awards
  • Environmental Excellence Awards
  • Safety Excellence Awards
  • Young WEDA Award – new in 2021

Additional information will be distributed out regarding awards criteria soon.

ABSTRACTS & PAPERS

• The 2021 Virtual Meeting is scheduled for June 15-17, 2021. We will provide the opportunity for several presentations during this week and throughout the year on our webinars. All corresponding authors will receive additional details on Friday, February 12th, from our Technical Papers Committee. We appreciate your patience and understanding.

Throughout this pandemic, the dredging industry has remained resilient and has adapted to achieve continued success. We are confident that our association will endure this pandemic and with our member firms’ collaborative efforts emerge even stronger in its wake. We give special thanks to our sustaining member firms for their continued support during these most challenging times and ask other firms to join us in strengthening WEDA. We wish you all the best of health, and we look forward to providing you a highly beneficial virtual meeting in June and webinars throughout the year.

Best Regards,

Tom Cappellino
Executive Director, WEDA
tcappellino@WesternDredging.org
(949) 422-8231 – cell