This Year's Spring Conference Was Held Under the Motto "Innovations in the E&P Industry".

On 25 and 26 April 2019 over 650 experts from industry and science met once again in the Congress Union Celle for the annual DGMK/ÖGEW Spring Conference under the motto "Innovations in the E&P Industry". The latest results from research and development in the fields of geo and engineering sciences were presented in 59 lectures and on 16 posters.

This year's Georg Hunaeus Prize for outstanding achievements by young scientists was awarded to Ivy Becker from the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology during the spring conference. She received the award for her work on the exploration of tight gas deposits in northern Germany.

New in the programme was the "Youngtimer Garage", which was aimed at the younger audience of the conference. The Young Professionals of the German Section PES organised a varied programme: Ritva Westendorf-Lahouse, press spokeswoman at ExxonMobil, reported in a congenial way on how the way of communication in the oil and gas industry has developed in recent years. She provided insights into the various motivations underlying the regular rejection of our industry and urged people to develop an understanding of these backgrounds and not to retreat into a strictly technical and scientific discussion. During the second part of the session, the participants had to take action and reenacted situations in job interviews that graduates and young professionals often experience.

The evening lecture by Reinhard Karger from the German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence in Saarbrücken is also worthy of special mention. In an extremely entertaining lecture, Reinhard Karger introduced the audience to the possibilities, the strengths, but also the limits of artificial intelligence (AI). According to his presentation, AI will actively support us in the future, both in everyday and professional life, and will also make our world a little safer - but it will not be able to take our thinking away from us in the future either.

Remarkable this year was also a demonstration of the Fridays for Future movement, which took place on Friday afternoon in front of the Congress Union Celle. Numerous young people demonstrated for more climate protection. The Fridays for Future Movement and its goals are met with great support among the conference participants - the experts from the E&P sector are ready to contribute their know-how about the use of the underground to solve the upcoming challenges. Some representatives of the DGMK and conference participants sought to talk to the demonstrators on the forecourt of the Congress Union Celle and contacts were exchanged. The DGMK will be available for a dialogue with the movement.