Western Standard - June 12, 2024


＂The Global Energy Show is where this vision comes to life ＂

Topics
global energy show history
Guests
Nix Main
Mentioned
Schultz Jean Peter Galahad Kevin Byrne
Freeland blames top tax bracket earners, despite her party's leadership over the past decade Municipal government overreach has left core services in a mess

Episode Stats


Length

10 minutes

Words per minute

160.66

Word count

1,650

Sentence count

76

Harmful content

Misogyny

1

sentences flagged


Summary

Summaries generated with gmurro/bart-large-finetuned-filtered-spotify-podcast-summ .

The Global Energy Show has been going on for 55 years in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. In this episode, we chat with Nix Main, Senior Vice President with DMG Events, about the show's history, its mission, and what it means to be Canadian in the energy sector.

Transcript

Transcript generated with Whisper (turbo).
Misogyny classifications generated with MilaNLProc/bert-base-uncased-ear-misogyny .
Topics generated with Qwen2.5-3B-Instruct.
Hosts, guests, and mentioned names generated with spaCy (en_core_web_sm), reconciled against Wikidata.
00:00:00.000 We're here with Nix Main, Senior Vice President with DMG Events at the global, I guess it's the
00:00:06.860 energy show nowadays. We were just talking about how far the show goes back in its various
00:00:12.280 iterations over the years and maybe you're involved with it. Yeah, Sean, thanks for having
00:00:19.340 me and it's a pleasure to talk to you and it is important to reminisce, I think, about the
00:00:24.580 Global Energy Show Canada as we call it today. But goodness, having a history here in the
00:00:31.860 city of Calgary going back more than 55 years, we get asked that question a lot and as the
00:00:39.260 DMG Events, you know, we see ourselves as a steward of this event because it is something
00:00:45.620 that's really important here to the history of Calgary. And our mission as a show remains
00:00:53.600 very much what it was when this show first started and through its different name changes
00:00:59.520 as we were chatting before the interview, is a way of showcasing a sector that a lot of
00:01:06.100 times really gets either, it's hard to shine a light to see what's going on in the energy
00:01:11.880 sector and more so what's going on here in Alberta and some of the really amazing stories
00:01:18.460 that are happening in the energy sector that have worldwide implications and what those
00:01:25.260 opportunities look like, what politics look like and all the different policies and different
00:01:31.600 things that are being talked about here present day over the three days of this year's show
00:01:36.840 in 2024. Well, we were joking that we wound up in the emissions reductions. Seems pretty ironic
00:01:45.460 for a media outlet, you know, being full of hot air. So is this a new kind of focus for the show?
00:01:53.640 Yeah, emissions reduction. We're fortunate, you know, this area and not lost on me, I just realized
00:01:59.900 that's where we are here. But yeah, our friends and great partners at the Methane Emissions Reduction
00:02:07.980 Alberta here have, this is the third year that they've hosted this section of the show and it has
00:02:14.600 been growing, you know, really balancing, you know, the call and the need for more energy,
00:02:22.780 more Alberta energy, more Canadian energy and also the technologies that are emerging to reduce
00:02:30.280 emissions in this particular case here at the theatre from Methane.
00:02:34.780 Right. And we had the Premier talk today and Environment Minister Schultz and they were talking about the
00:02:40.460 innovation that Alberta brings to the table and how we're respected around the globe, not just for our energy
00:02:49.600 production, but also for things like emissions production. Well, yeah, I think it's those technologies and it's
00:02:57.140 great to have the Premier here and Minister Schultz and Minister Jean here today as well, you know, talking about some of those
00:03:05.120 technologies that are homegrown. A good friend of ours and the show here, Kevin Byrne, put it really well that, you know,
00:03:13.300 here in Canada, we've got such a wonderful diversity of sectors, particularly in oil and gas. I mean, look, we've got the oil sands,
00:03:22.300 you know, truck and shovel, we've got traditional oil, we've got unconventional, we've got offshore, we've got all those technologies. What country in the world has that breadth and variety, all kind of
00:03:26.300 smashed together and that's alone in oil and gas is what you see and those opportunities to expand our production of energy and, you know, a lot of the conference and what the Premier was talking and alluded to today is what's our response to the
00:03:45.300 is what's our responsibility as an energy rich nation to help export that to different parts of the world that are calling for Canadian energy?
00:04:03.300 Well, you know, the irony is, is when I went to my first National Petroleum Show within 2000, 1999, the conversation then was around peak oil and running out of oil and how were we going to maintain, you know, security of supply.
00:04:20.300 And now the conversation has kind of almost switched, like now we have all this energy, we have all these reserves, you know, how are we going to get them to the rest of the world?
00:04:28.300 It's a big challenge. And I mean, we know, as you mentioned, you know, Minister Jean, and we talk a lot about that here in Alberta, you know, being landlocked and issues with the pipelines.
00:04:41.300 Some great meetings happening this year on the topic of energy corridors, not just for oil and gas, but for electricity.
00:04:51.300 You know, there's been there's talks at this year's conference about AI. I was just in a conversation about quantum computing.
00:05:00.300 We all know that there is demand for new technologies, transportation like that are going to require mass amounts of electrification.
00:05:09.300 So where is this energy going to go, whether that's for export from Canada, but also for utilization here in our own country and looking forward to see how are we creating that capacity and thinking ahead and getting that message out to your average citizen.
00:05:28.300 That's a big, you know, getting back to the beginnings of this show, it's really important to us that the discussions can make their way through to media outlets such as the Western Standard and get down to people that have a vested interest because we all do have a vested interest in energy because it touches so many things, doesn't it, in our daily lives?
00:05:49.300 Absolutely. That's what Peter Galahad used to tell me. We're the owners. We own it. It's ours. We have a responsibility to develop it and to develop it properly.
00:06:05.300 Would you say that the industry has recovered since the pandemic? What about the show in terms of the size and the number of exhibitors and visitors and maybe some of the deal flow that goes on here?
00:06:18.300 Yeah. I mean, I look at it a couple of ways. So we've certainly since I'll say those, you know, the pandemic, but even just prior to that, as we look at the big downturn here that, you know, myself 10 years now here in Alberta, that we that we've lived as Albertans following 2014, 2015.
00:06:39.540 We started to see a bit of recovery through the pandemic from we reopened the show in 2022, and this is our third edition since the pandemic.
00:06:49.120 We've seen growth each year, year on year in important metrics, number of exhibitors, number of attendees coming each year as well.
00:06:58.380 And then just the deal flow, as you mentioned, new project announcements is something we weren't sure if we were going to be seeing how many of those both in oil and gas, but also exciting announcements in in hydrogen and and other petrochemical announcements and others that we've been seeing here in the province.
00:07:19.180 I know without spilling any beans, because I know that tomorrow and throughout the next couple of days of the show, there will be more fresh project announcements to look out for.
00:07:30.000 They're going to be made right here at the show as well.
00:07:31.680 So it's a bit of a rising tide. So, you know, the sector, there's there's more money, more deal flow happening.
00:07:39.100 We try as organizers to structure the show, to follow where that where that deal flow is going and structure the content and the exhibition around that and make that a conduit where we can organize that supply chain to do our part.
00:07:54.600 You know, we're three days. Our job as a show is to is to try and supercharge the industry as much as possible, get as much discussion going as possible and look at it like a day after effect.
00:08:08.060 So come Friday this week, we stop, we get with our executive committee and do an after meeting and say, you know, what has changed?
00:08:16.020 And did we hit some of those goals of drawing attention to to what you're talking about is what what's next year going to look like and start planning that already as of this Friday, believe it or not.
00:08:28.100 Excellent. I do. I do believe you. I know.
00:08:31.000 So you mentioned that you've been in Alberta 10 years from Ontario.
00:08:35.600 What are you a lifelong Albertan?
00:08:38.060 Now, so I'll have to I'll have to answer that by bringing in my wife, who's also from Ontario, that joined me out here in Alberta.
00:08:46.480 And when I first came out here, it really was I think about that a lot because it's some of that messaging now is that Alberta is that land of opportunity.
00:08:57.460 And when I first got here, it took a little while to figure that out, being from Ontario, exactly what it means from an opportunity here in this province.
00:09:07.480 And it's not just about jobs or making more money and trying to get things from an individualistic standpoint.
00:09:15.700 What immediately, you know, got my heart here was, you know, you're on the side of the road with a flat tire, people pull over.
00:09:23.420 I'm the worst for it now when I go back to Ontario.
00:09:26.360 And that's not the slag, but I'll start a conversation in the line at the grocery store, because that's just what we do here, because, you know, we've got a real shared fraternity, I think, as Albertans.
00:09:40.740 And we've got an optimistic outlook through some, you know, a lot of challenges that we've had.
00:09:46.960 And that's got a hold of me.
00:09:48.820 That's got a hold of my wife now who's moved out here. 1.00
00:09:51.540 And I got to tell you, we can't ever see going back there.
00:09:56.520 We are here in Alberta and we love it.
00:09:59.240 And we're so excited for the future of the province and the opportunities that we're grateful for, for us and our family.
00:10:08.400 So, yeah, we're here to stay.
00:10:10.960 Excellent.
00:10:11.580 Thank you very much.
00:10:12.740 It's a real pleasure.
00:10:13.720 Thanks for the opportunity.
00:10:14.800 Pleasure, too.
00:10:15.260 Thanks, sir.