The last MEI Conference before the pandemic was Flotation '19, and it seems strange not to be travelling to Cape Town in November, something Barbara and I have done for the past 24 years.
The first MEI Conference in Cape Town began 20 years ago today. Minerals Engineering 2000 was the first of a number of events to be held at the Mount Nelson, one of Africa's premier hotels. We organised the meeting in association with the Universities of Cape Town and Stellenbosch and the Cape Technikon, and sponsorship was provided by CSIRO, Mintek, Multotec and Hicom International.
Around 125 delegates, representing 18 countries from as far as Australia, North and South America, Europe and Asia, attended the conference, which contained 84 high quality presentations, selected from among the over 150 abstracts submitted to MEI.
It is always interesting to look back at old conference photos to see who you can recognise and this conference is no exception:
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Barry, great-- Many times recollecting the past gives hope for a brighter future ; let us all hope that normalcy will come back soon with no more major tragedies--what a time we have been going through!
ReplyDeleteIn India the picture on corona is still hazy though we went through some elections in many States.
I am sure that your Blogs are keeping us more focused to look back at our profession and plan for a major shift to move much faster--so much to catchup-
Best wishes to all.
For some reason it feels as if life was simpler then, with more hope and enthusiasm.
ReplyDeleteGood luck to all and stay safe.
Best wishes to all.
Jacques Eksteen
Many thanks Jacques. I have just been watching your keynote at ALTA. Very well done, but certainly miss getting together for a beer or two afterwards. Maybe next year!
DeleteAbsolutely Barry. I really miss a true face-to-face conference.To me it’s the very human interactions that I sorely miss.
DeleteJust absorbing information through an electronic interface just doesn’t do it for me (anymore), particularly as I spent many a day anyway in virtual meetings, so that another one just doesn’t make me excited. Maybe I’m just stuck in an old way of doing, but a good pub-chat or a visit to a winery and the get-together of people you typically see once or maybe twice a year is something I really enjoyed. I really hope things improve in the coming year and that an effective vaccine become available and we all can travel again.
Best wishes to all as we enter the last stretch if 2020.
Regards
Jacques
Thanks again Jacques. I've stressed many times in the past that presentations at conferences are obviously important, but the most important aspect is the social interaction, particularly so for young people just developing their careers.
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