Having been caught in the maelstrom of the rapidly spreading global pandemic of early 2020, the WTC 2020 organisers held the virtual alternative this week (11-16 September 2020). As a first for the World Tunnel Congress series, the organisers in Malaysia managed in three months to prepare a virtual alternative to a programme that had been in the making for a physical gathering in Kuala Lumpur for three years. This was no small feat under such unprecedented circumstances.

Lobby to the virtual congress

Like all new systems, it has taken time to debug glitches in the access processes and for those interested in participating to learn their way around the congress and its accompanying virtual exhibition hall. The virtual alternative also took extra effort by presenters to record their presentations for online access and for exhibitors to populate and attend their virtual booths. It is a credit to the 263 authors who prepared their recorded paper presentations, all of which were available for online viewing on their schedule programme slot.

After a slow start, and after the time taken to become familiar with the processes, attendees would have missed a lot had the congress ended as scheduled yesterday (Wednesday 16 September 2020). Fortunately, the organisers have extended online access for registered participants to the virtual WTC 2020 presentations for another week until 23 September 2020. This provides extra time to appreciate the presentations and connect with authors and exhibitors and maybe in a better way than had the delegations all dispersed for home after the Wednesday closing ceremony. Perhaps there is the ability to also buy access to the presentations during this extension by visiting the WTC2020.com website.

There was news also from the IEM organising committee chairman to the ITA General Assembly yesterday (Wednesday 16 September), that all refunds owed, due to the cancellation of the physical conference in May, and again of the postponed conference in September to the virtual alternative, will be paid and received by claimants by the end of September 2020. This is positive news after the serious discussions held on behalf of delegates, exhibitors and sponsors by the ITA (International Tunnelling and Underground Space Association) with the IEM (Institution of Engineers Malaysia and host of the Malaysia Member Nation tunnelling society of the ITA) to secure a 70% refund for those who claim it, when at the start, no refunds of any kind were being offered. It is also positive news to report after poor management of communications with the industry through the months of uncertainty.

Virtual presentations of the opening ceremony

Many however are still not entirely satisfied with the outcome, suggesting that a 100% refund should have been offered and that participation agreements for individual delegates, exhibitors and sponsors were with IEM to manage and not with the ITA to negotiate. The ITA has stated that it was acting on behalf of the industry for the best outcome and waived its substantial revenues that would normally flow to the ITA from a WTC event, to secure at least the 70% refund. The refund issue may rumble on for some time yet and has brought into sharp focus the need to review the contracts ITA enters with the hosts of its World Tunnel Congress brand and series of events, an issue discussed during the ITA General Assembly yesterday.

For the virtual event itself, there have been several points of feedback from the industry.

The content of most of the presentations was of the standard of normal WTCs ranging from the very good to excellent in content and presentation, to the very good in content but difficult to understand in presentation, to the poor on both counts. Some of this is due to the reviewing process of the abstracts and papers as submitted and much in the experience of presenters to present in English as the official language of the WTCs. There is facility on the viewing platform to leave a public question for the presenter but no facility to download the presentation or the paper. E-Proceedings are to be available from 17 September 2020 for download from the virtual congress Download Centre and hard copy of the proceedings in three volumes is available to purchase for MYR318.00, excluding postage.

List of technical presentations and the open session programme followed by a moderated Q&A panel session with the authors

For screen viewing of the presentations, the viewing window is very small and the quality of the audio recordings for many of the presentations is poor, either in the original recording or in the replay. The small window provides no full screen viewing facility and information on the slides was too small to read or appreciate. This is where a copy of the paper is essential as part of the full conference experience – either in person or virtually.

One of the more engaging sessions was the hour-long live streamed Q&A panel discussion on Wednesday morning and now available as a recording. The topics were interesting with the panellists as leaders in their own disciplines and representing clients, contractors and suppliers, bringing a broad view of the topics to discussions about the impact of the pandemic on the industry, the development of AI and robotics in construction, where developments might progress in the future, procurement strategies for mega projects and the disconnect between the civil works and the M&E works on major metro and transportation projects, and outlook for the underground construction industry if governments decide to delay schedules for new projects and infrastructure investments.

In the exhibition area, the facilities on the booths is limited, depending on the size of the booth purchased, and interaction with those attending the booths is sporadic. TunnelTalk visited most of the booths, dropping a business card and leaving a chat message and has had replies. The chat window worked well once engaged, if a bit slow. The exhibitor booth comment and live chat facilities were available only until 16 September and are not part of the event extension.

Exhibitors of the virtual exhibition halls with the others below

For the download materials on the booths, they all have a generic <mego_97ab921f7516871d669a6a26cb825edb> tag line, requiring that they be renamed into a save folder. Not sure why the original titles of the company pdfs could not have been used or why, like other virtual events including the NAT in June in the USA, the exhibitors themselves could not have uploaded their own materials to the virtual booths. All had to be sent to the organisers for uploaded with the generic file tags.

A personal disappointment is that there are no desks or booths for the media at the congress. This is an agreement between the industry media and the ITA in its annual WTC series but was overlooked for the virtual alternative.

All in all, the virtual event was the best possible perhaps under the circumstance and credit is owed to the technicians who made it happen. We all feel the loss however of not being able to attend the event as it was planned and in person in Kuala Lumpur. As a previous visitor to Malaysia and Kuala Lumpur on many occasions, it is a wonderful city and country and we all missed the regular annual opportunity to meet friends and colleagues and manage business connections and network with like-minded professionals from around the world. As well as a significant financial loss to the IEM and to the ITA, it is a loss to the international community and to the opportunity we all enjoy at a WTC to mix business with social enjoyment and leisure.

This too will be missed next year as the WTC 2021 in Copenhagen, Denmark, in May has been cancelled and moved to April 2022. The decision, tabled at the ITA General Assembly and agreed by the 74 Member Nations of the Association, considered the uncertainty about the control of the coronavirus pandemic a risk that required an early decision to take cancellation action earlier rather than later and further advanced into the physical staging processes. The ITA will instead stage virtual events of its own during the year and anticipate that a gathering at the WTC 2022 in Copenhagen will be possible.

Until then we continue to work from our home offices, look back on WTC Naples last year as the most recent industry wide gathering, and manage to stay connected across the virtual highways as best we can.

Exhibitors of the WTC 2020 virtual congress exhibition

Having been caught in the maelstrom of the rapidly spreading global pandemic of early 2020, the WTC 2020 organisers held the virtual alternative this week (11-16 September 2020). As a first for the World Tunnel Congress series, the organisers in Malaysia managed in three months to prepare a virtual alternative to a programme that had been in the making for a physical gathering in Kuala Lumpur for three years. This was no small feat under such unprecedented circumstances.

Like all new systems, it has taken time to debug glitches in the access processes and for those interested in participating to learn their way around the congress and its accompanying virtual exhibition hall. The virtual alternative also took extra effort by presenters to record their presentations for online access and for exhibitors to populate and attend their virtual booths. It is a credit to the 263 authors who prepared their recorded paper presentations, all of which were available for online viewing on their schedule programme slot.

After a slow start, and after the time taken to become familiar with the processes, attendees would have missed a lot had the congress ended as scheduled yesterday (Wednesday 16 September 2020). Fortunately, the organisers have extended online access for registered participants to the virtual WTC 2020 presentations for another week until 23 September 2020. This provides extra time to appreciate the presentations and connect with authors and exhibitors and maybe in a better way than had the delegations all dispersed for home after the Wednesday closing ceremony. Perhaps there is the ability to also buy access to the presentations during this extension by visiting the WTC2020.com website.

There was news also from the IEM organising committee chairman to the ITA General Assembly yesterday (Wednesday 16 September), that all refunds owed, due to the cancellation of the physical conference in May, and again of the postponed conference in September to the virtual alternative, will be paid and received by claimants by the end of September 2020. This is positive news after the serious discussions held on behalf of delegates, exhibitors and sponsors by the ITA (International Tunnelling and Underground Space Association) with the IEM (Institution of Engineers Malaysia and host of the Malaysia Member Nation tunnelling society of the ITA) to secure a 70% refund for those who claim it, when at the start, no refunds of any kind were being offered. It is also positive news to report after poor management of communications with the industry through the months of uncertainty.

Many however are still not entirely satisfied with the outcome, suggesting that a 100% refund should have been offered and that participation agreements for individual delegates, exhibitors and sponsors were with IEM to manage and not with the ITA to negotiate. The ITA has stated that it was acting on behalf of the industry for the best outcome and waived its substantial revenues that would normally flow to the ITA from a WTC event, to secure at least the 70% refund. The refund issue may rumble on for some time yet and has brought into sharp focus the need to review the contracts ITA enters with the hosts of its World Tunnel Congress brand and series of events, an issue discussed during the ITA General Assembly yesterday.

Exhibitors of the virtual exhibition halls with the others below

For the virtual event itself, there have been several points of feedback from the industry.

The content of most of the presentations was of the standard of normal WTCs ranging from the very good to excellent in content and presentation, to the very good in content but difficult to understand in presentation, to the poor on both counts. Some of this is due to the reviewing process of the abstracts and papers as submitted and much in the experience of presenters to present in English as the official language of the WTCs. There is facility on the viewing platform to leave a public question for the presenter but no facility to download the presentation or the paper. E-Proceedings are to be available from 17 September 2020 for download from the virtual congress Download Centre and hard copy of the proceedings in three volumes is available to purchase for MYR318.00, excluding postage.

For screen viewing of the presentations, the viewing window is very small and the quality of the audio recordings for many of the presentations is poor, either in the original recording or in the replay. The small window provides no full screen viewing facility and information on the slides was too small to read or appreciate. This is where a copy of the paper is essential as part of the full conference experience – either in person or virtually.

One of the more engaging sessions was the hour-long live streamed Q&A panel discussion on Wednesday morning and now available as a recording. The topics were interesting with the panellists as leaders in their own disciplines and representing clients, contractors and suppliers, bringing a broad view of the topics to discussions about the impact of the pandemic on the industry, the development of AI and robotics in construction, where developments might progress in the future, procurement strategies for mega projects and the disconnect between the civil works and the M&E works on major metro and transportation projects, and outlook for the underground construction industry if governments decide to delay schedules for new projects and infrastructure investments.

In the exhibition area, the facilities on the booths is limited, depending on the size of the booth purchased, and interaction with those attending the booths is sporadic. TunnelTalk visited most of the booths, dropping a business card and leaving a chat message and has had replies. The chat window worked well once engaged, if a bit slow. The exhibitor booth comment and live chat facilities were available only until 16 September and are not part of the event extension.

For the download materials on the booths, they all have a generic <mego_97ab921f7516871d669a6a26cb825edb> tag line, requiring that they be renamed into a save folder. Not sure why the original titles of the company pdfs could not have been used or why, like other virtual events including the NAT in June in the USA, the exhibitors themselves could not have uploaded their own materials to the virtual booths. All had to be sent to the organisers for uploaded with the generic file tags.