Features Commercial EMS
Preview Vancouver

Helicopters Association of Canada president Brian Jenner has been
touring around the country in a mobile home this past 18-months,
connecting with Canadian helicopter operators where they live. It has
been an encouraging experience. Jenner likes what he hears. “Generally
the economy is good and our members are looking forward to the show,”
he told Helicopters. “It is always a positive sign when operators have
both the time and the money to attend.”

Western
Canada has traditionally been good to HAC and registration is already
approximately 40% above the same time in 2003, when the convention and
trade show last set down in Vancouver.

With two months to go,
trade show space was already at a premium despite 85% more room for
suppliers to display their wares. Thirty-one booths have spilled out
from the main display area into the foyer compared with only seven
(including Helicopters) two years ago. And British engine manufacturer
Rolls Royce has added its name to the list of show sponsors, which
include ACROHELIPRO, Agusta, AON, Bell Helicopter, Eurocopter, Marsh,
Pratt & Whitney Canada, Standard Aero and Turbomeca Canada.

Keeping
with the practice of continual improvement, regular attendees will
notice some subtle but welcome adjustments from last year’s edition.
The published HAC program, for example, is more detailed, giving
delegates a sense of topics covered in each session along with a
biography of the main speakers. Jenner also wants to encourage greater
participation at the show’s eight Committee Bull Pit sessions. “Most
delegates think that these sessions are closed off. But they are open
to anyone who has something to say.”

A program highlight will
once again be the keynote speaker. HAC regularly invites speaker’s
whose connection with the helicopter industry is not immediately
obvious, but whose experience and topics cause operators to stop and
think. Last year it was Dr. Linda Duxbury, a professor from Ottawa’s
Carlton University making a presentation on how to deal with
generational differences in the workforce. This year, Brian Keating,
the head of Conservation Outreach for the Calgary Zoological Society
will present an analysis of the leadership capabilities of legendary
British Antarctic explorer, Ernest Shackleton.

Keating has
travelled to the Antarctic on six expeditions, which included the
re-tracing of the famous Shackleton Expedition of 1914-16. “Keating is
a motivational speaker,” Jenner pointed out. “There are lessons he can
teach about leadership.” Marsh sponsors this year’s speaker.

Now
in its ninth year, the annual HAC convention and trade show continues
to surpass expectation. One of the HAC organizers’ biggest challenges
is to balance the show’s expected intimacy with its increased
popularity, especially when it pitches its tent in the heart of the
Canadian helicopter industry (more than 50% of civilian helicopters in
Canada are based in Alberta and British Columbia). “We are at a point
where I get more and more flabbergasted by the growth,” Jenner added.