API Summit - Thoughts from the Show Floor (featuring Andri Orphanides)

Inside the 2026 Inspection & Mechanical Integrity Summit… Recorded live in person from the 2026 Inspection and Mechanical Integrity Summit in San Antonio. Andri Orphanides joins our hosts Greg and Branden to talk about planning the 10th Edition of the API Summit over two years, adding new elements like the Energy Exchange, petrochemical track, digital transformation content, charity golf tournament, and the technology showcase theater in the exhibition hall. 

Summit Stats as of Tuesday, July 20… 2,063 registrants, 343 presentations selected from 500+ abstracts, 23 panels, and 21 training sessions. Andri outlines the Summit’s downstream/midstream/upstream, multi-sector, petrochemical, NDE, corrosion/metallurgy, and asset integrity coverage, plus beginner-to-advanced session levels. They highlight keynote speaker Shawn Kanungo on disruptive generative AI, student outreach programs, and preview the “Three Gray Beards” panel and emerging technology showcases.

00:46 Two Years of Planning

02:14 Record Attendance and New Features

03:17 Powering Patriots Charity Golf Tournament

05:42 Summit Tracks and Levels

08:15 Talks and Volunteer Power

10:09 Shawn Kanungo, keynote speaker on Generative AI

10:30 Booking the Keynote Speaker

12:15 AI Hype vs Fundamentals

12:45 Track Leads Shoutouts

13:55 Why Add Petrochem Track

14:25 Planning the 2028 Summit

15:18 STEM Outreach for Students (This Ones for the Gals)

17:22 Day Two Highlights

18:28 Emerging Tech and Theater

19:16 Energy Exchange Origins

20:11 Wrap Up and Credits

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 We’d love to hear from you—connect with us on LinkedIn and share your thoughts on the episode. Have ideas for future topics or guests? Email us at inspectionpodcast@gmail.com.

Join us next time, wherever you get your podcasts. Until then, stay safe and stay informed.

Note:  The views and opinions expressed by the guest are their own and do not necessarily reflect those of the hosts or the Upon Further Inspection podcast. This podcast is for informational purposes only and does not constitute legal or professional advice. Listeners should seek their own qualified advisors for guidance.

Transcript

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Branden 0:00

welcome to a really special episode that we have here. Uh, Greg, great seeing you.

Greg 0:04

Good seeing you,

Branden 0:05

We have Andrea Orfanides with us here today. Live.

Greg 0:09

From-

Andri 0:09

Live and in person.

Branden 0:10

Live and in person. In per- uh, this is the first time From San Antonio. This is the first time

Andri 0:12

This is the first

Branden 0:13

we've had an in-person one. Yeah. So everything... Normally we, uh, we're all virtual, but, uh, we're here at the 2026 Inspection and Mechanical Integrity Summit. Um, and I'll tell you what, day one here has been pretty awesome. Um- I heard that word I know, Andrea, you had a lot to do with this. How was, how was the whole setup and lead up to this?

Andri 0:46

Oh my God. Uh, we've been working for probably two years. I feel like as soon as the last summit in '24 ended, um, we started work on the '26.

Greg 0:59

26. And

Andri 0:59

I asked

Greg 1:00

the plan-

Andri 1:01

wonderful planning group that you guys saw up on stage

Greg 1:04

morning- Yeah um,

Andri 1:05

people like Brent, uh, Ray, and Mason Thomas, and Travis Harrington, and Mark Carton. I know I'm gonna forget somebody. Rafael and Agata and, uh, and Blaze, and somebody correct me if... Somebody tell me what the other if I forgot somebody. Um, but we had a really great, uh, planning committee team, and then what I asked on 2024, and I said, "You know what? Because

Greg 1:29

the next

Andri 1:29

one is our 10th, none of you can go

Branden 1:32

anywhere.

Greg 1:32

Like, you have to stay,

Andri 1:34

and you have to help plan the '26 one because I want cohesion. I don't want- I want people who kind of are already in the flow with what we've done and how we're doing

Greg 1:43

Yeah.

Andri 1:43

so that the number 10, we can just concentrate on making it bigger and better and adding more value to these." And so that's what we did, and they promised me they would come back. Um, we lost one person. I think it was Matt Cassidy who was with us on '24, who, um, just his job got busy, and so we brought in John Harville, and he was great, uh, helping to balance out the downstream and-

Greg 2:08

the

Andri 2:08

Yeah. So, but other than that, we had a really great crew who came back,

Branden 2:12

back It, I mean, it seems like it's worked out well. I mean, it's been, it's, it's... as you said, it's bigger and, I mean, there's so many more people here.

Greg 2:19

more people here. So how many are at this one? How many registrants?

Andri 2:21

Oh, last I checked, it was just

Greg 2:23

2,063. You

Branden 2:25

2,063. Oh, only. Ab- about. About About. Give or take. Give or take.

Greg 2:29

or take. So yeah, we broke 2,000 yesterday. Okay.

Andri 2:32

Okay um, which was exciting 'cause typically we

Greg 2:35

get a lot of o- on-site registrations like

Andri 2:39

that many. And so to have broken 2,000 for this- Yeah um, that's, I feel like that's already, we're already ahead

Greg 2:47

Wait- Never

Andri 2:48

that we added an energy exchange. Never mind that we added the Petrochem track. Never mind that we had all these technology showcase things going on. Like, it, it's just been, it's

Greg 2:58

amazing And all the panel discussions. And all

Andri 3:00

the, and 23 panel

Branden 3:02

It's

Greg 3:03

Yeah. And all the training. And

Andri 3:04

all the tra- 21... Thank you. Thank you, Greg. You wanna

Greg 3:07

just take over? No, you go. You're the big kahuna for this, Andrea. This, this is your show, girl.

Andri 3:12

20, 21, uh, trainings that we started out with yesterday. Uh, Sunday we started out with an incredible golf, uh, tournament- Yeah that we hosted for Hope For The Warriors. Uh, we helped raised over

Greg 3:26

for our veterans.

Andri 3:27

Awesome. So that's amazing.

Greg 3:29

You know,

Andri 3:30

we, uh, there was a little bit of time there, uh, leading up to the golf thing where I was like, "Are we gonna be able to pull this off?"

Greg 3:37

And then, you know, the sponsors came in and, um,

Andri 3:40

uh, golfers came in, and I think everybody was just kinda like, you know, are, is API gonna pull off this? But we had

Greg 3:47

a really, again, we

Andri 3:48

a really great group behind us. We had Jeff Major who was leading us in the golf. We had, uh, Brent again who was helping there, Mark Hart who was helping there, uh, and just a bu- whole bunch of really great companies coming out to help sponsor. And Hope, Hope is really great, so if you don't, haven't had a

Greg 4:04

to, uh,

Andri 4:05

check out what Hope does, uh, they're really great and they do great things for the veterans. And they're national, they're not just like a local, you know, charity.

Branden 4:13

How, how did you guys get hooked up with Hope?

Andri 4:15

Uh, honestly, I did a search. Uh, people were like, "Let's do a charity," and I was like, "Okay." And they were like, "Let's do, make it veteran," and I was like, "Okay." Yeah. And I just

Greg 4:25

like, Let me pick

Andri 4:26

the best

Branden 4:27

the best veteran

Andri 4:28

organization that I can find," and, you know, people started throwing out name, people started throwing out names at me. You know, "Do this one, do that one."

Greg 4:35

that

Andri 4:36

And I was like, "Yeah, that sounds great." Yeah. And I just kinda made a list and then I did a search myself, and I was like, "I don't know, this Hope one really looks good." Like, you know, and I did my due diligence. I checked out, them out on like, uh, what is that? Uh, charity one where you can rate the cha- Yeah. Yep where they rate charities. Yep, yep. And they had a really high rating.

Greg 4:53

That's awesome. And so

Andri 4:55

I fin- I to- I had to do my due diligence, take it through API legal too- Yeah 'cause, you know,

Greg 5:00

I can't just

Andri 5:00

decide like where API is gonna- Right work, partner with a charity. But, um, yeah, no, and they came back and they gave me the thumbs up, and I was like, "All right, let's

Greg 5:08

go." That's awesome. I love those rating things too because they, they tell you how much of the money actually goes to the- Yeah to the recipients versus administrative people pocketing the money. Right,

Andri 5:21

And you wanna, and you really wanna

Greg 5:22

look for that-

Andri 5:23

When you're l- working with a charity and when you're wanting to, um, partner or donate or anything, you wanna see how much is actually going to administrative costs and how much is actually going. And they had a re- I mean, like, I think it had like a 94 rating, so it-

Greg 5:37

After

Andri 5:37

that, I was like, "Okay, as long as the legal approves this, let's

Branden 5:40

go." You were in. Yeah. So

Greg 5:41

Yeah. So Andrew, for the benefit of the listeners to understand what the summit is, uh, that may not be familiar with it, how many different tracks are there? And do you remember the names of the tracks?

Branden 5:53

Ooh, that's mean. You're,

Greg 5:54

just trying to quiz me. So,

Andri 5:56

uh, first of all, if you don't know what the summit

Greg 5:58

is, I mean,

Andri 5:59

it's an incredible opportunity. It's probably b- probably the premier, um, industry event for oil and gas, um, and mechanical integrity, uh, that exists, and you should be here. So if you don't know about it,

Greg 6:11

should get to know about it. Agree 100%.

Andri 6:13

Um, it's been... This, again, this is our 10th, so

Greg 6:16

we've been... this has been going on for 20 years.

Andri 6:18

Um, and yes, we do have, uh, things,

Greg 6:21

divided into sort of, like, the divisions or segments from downstream,

Andri 6:24

midstream, upstream. We have a multi-sector track that's kind

Greg 6:28

like

Andri 6:28

that catchall, if you will. Um, and

Greg 6:31

year we added

Andri 6:31

the petrochem. And then

Branden 6:34

As

Greg 6:34

we divide each of those

Andri 6:37

into further subcategories, the ones that we have tracks that

Greg 6:40

cover, like, NDE.

Andri 6:41

NDE,

Greg 6:42

we have tracks that

Andri 6:42

cover, um, corrosion and metallurgy. We have tr- uh, a track that covers, uh, asset integrity.

Greg 6:48

Um, and then

Andri 6:49

sometimes

Greg 6:50

when, when... depending

Andri 6:52

what's going on, there's special tracks too. So this year we added, um, the digital transformation to multi-sector. So that

Greg 6:59

seemed to be, like, the

Andri 7:00

right

Greg 7:00

on-point thing to do at this point in time. Um,

Andri 7:04

Um, we have syngas, uh, in the petrochem track. Um, we have unmanned aerial systems in the downstream 'cause that seems to be, you know, the, the new- Yeah the new thing to look at- Yeah, yeah and pay attention to. So yeah, I mean there's like,

Greg 7:17

19

Andri 7:17

different tracks to follow if you're here, so there's something for everybody.

Greg 7:22

Um, and

Andri 7:23

this year we also made sure that we were looking at, uh,

Greg 7:27

uh,

Andri 7:27

uh, whether th- that

Greg 7:28

somebody who

Andri 7:29

was a beginner,

Greg 7:29

so you could, you could choose

Andri 7:31

your track a- and choose your level that you

Greg 7:34

to go to.

Branden 7:35

So

Andri 7:35

if you're a newbie in the industry, you could go to all the beginner stuff if that's what you wanted to do. You could go to the intermediate stuff if that's what you wanted to do. You could go to the advanced stuff if you felt like you were, you know, 20-plus years in the industry and you, you know, wanted to make sure you got the most out of this. So we really, we, I'm telling you, man, we really, we put everything, we put everything behind this.

Greg 7:56

Yeah. It

Andri 7:57

shows.

Branden 7:57

really does. It's been, it's been really great this first day here. So, and, and the app, the app has been fantastic. yeah. Um, the-

Greg 8:05

It's a good app Well,

Andri 8:05

been, the app's been around. It has.

Greg 8:06

been around It has It

Andri 8:07

has been. And-

Branden 8:07

But, uh, I don't know, I don't know if you changed something, but it feels like, uh, it feels easier to use this year. I agree. So I appreciate it. Yeah.

Greg 8:14

Awesome.

Andri 8:14

agree. That's awesome.

Greg 8:15

Yeah. How many, how many different presentations or talks are there? Do you know offhand?

Andri 8:20

Oh, did I... Oh, 300, This time 343 this year. Wow. We received, uh, an incredible response to the abstract submission. Like, we had over

Greg 8:29

500 presentations. So

Andri 8:32

when you saw how many volunteers were there to review, to

Greg 8:36

put,

Andri 8:36

help put this all together, they had over 500 abstracts. Wow. To, to, to whittle down to the 343 that have made it here today. Yeah.

Branden 8:47

Yeah.

Greg 8:48

So speaking of volunteers, how many, uh, API staffers, which obviously they're not volunteers, but the vol- No, I, I put them- How, how many people does it take? I put

Andri 8:57

all

Greg 8:57

to work. I put- Yeah. How many people does it take to- Oh pull off something like

Andri 9:00

my God, pull off

Greg 9:01

a lot.

Andri 9:01

A lot. I mean, a lot. I mean, you saw, did

Greg 9:03

you... You saw this morning at the keynote session, we had slide after slide. We

Andri 9:07

moderators, we have day managers. O- obviously, I,

Greg 9:10

I

Andri 9:10

all my staff, um,

Greg 9:12

uh,

Andri 9:13

what, four of my staff members,

Greg 9:15

and then we've

Andri 9:15

got the meetings team. We've got a whole slew of meetings, uh, folks who are helping us, uh, execute this and, and plan this, and set up for all... Like, all of everything you see around you right now. It really,

Greg 9:26

It really, it, it's a community. Yeah. It, it's a really tight-knit community. Sometimes I f- forget about how there aren't many degrees of separation between the people here, are there? No. No. Yeah. No. For

Branden 9:38

sure. Yeah, you can't walk through... I was just telling somebody, you can't walk through, uh, you know, from one place to the next without running into four or five people that you've, that you've seen before- Yeah and, and talk with them. And yeah, it's, it's busy. I mean, I know

Greg 9:50

And

Andri 9:51

that you haven't seen in a while,

Branden 9:52

And you remember meeting them at

Andri 9:54

you, you remember meeting them at the last summit.

Branden 9:56

I just had that. I literally just had that. Guy came by the booth, and I was like, "What's up? I just, I saw you at the last one." Yeah. It's just kinda like that thing. You see everybody, you catch up and, you know, go hang out and talk about what's going on.

Greg 10:08

and talk about what's going on. Uh, did

Andri 10:09

you all catch the keynote speaker? He was phenomenal.

Branden 10:12

Yeah, so talk about that

Greg 10:13

Sean was

Andri 10:13

was amazing this morning. He talked about, uh, disruptive, uh, generative AI, so that was

Greg 10:20

a new phrase that

Andri 10:21

everybody learned this morning. And if you weren't there, he was phenomenal. Yeah. Like, I'm gonna go and disrupt all my work on Monday and see how that works with my boss-

Branden 10:30

I'll call Sean if I am mistaken, John. Be careful out there. Yeah, it was, it was, really good. There was a lot of, a lot of really, really good pieces that he had in there. So, uh, h- how'd you, how'd you get hooked up with him? Was he another one where you just kind of were researching, or?

Andri 10:31

call Sean if I

Greg 10:33

still have a job. Yeah. Be careful with that. Yeah, so it was, it was really

Andri 10:38

Yeah, it was, it was really good. There was a lot of, a lot of

Greg 10:40

a lot of great, really

Andri 10:41

good pieces. that he had in there. So, h- how did you, how did you get hooked up with him? Was he another one where you just kind of were researching or- So I actually had the privilege of being at a, a, a credentialing industry conference where he was a, a keynote

Greg 10:58

speaker. Yeah.

Andri 10:58

And this was just before his book, The Bold Ones, came out, and he talked about, uh, being bold and being disruptive and go disrupt

Greg 11:06

the workplace

Andri 11:07

kind of thing. He's changed, he's changed his, you know, meaning and, and what he's putting out there just a little bit from that talk, but that I met three... Where I met him three years ago. Um, but I was just like, "Oh my God. We have to have this guy come to the Inspection Summit." I mean, the way the, our industry is changing, the way, uh, you know, technology's coming in.

Greg 11:26

Yeah.

Andri 11:27

I actual- I wanted him for '24, um, but we didn't, we didn't get a chance to kind of really vet him out and look at, and look at what he was doing

Greg 11:34

a look at what he was doing

Andri 11:35

and, and have everybody kind of be okay with him coming in '24. So I said, "You know what? He's probably gonna be perfect for '26. You know, it's our tenth edition. He's gonna be amazing." And

Greg 11:45

think, I

Andri 11:46

think, I think we knocked it out of the park- Yeah

Branden 11:48

Topic was so relevant.

Greg 11:49

The topic was so relevant. There were a lot of people that were happy with it, man. They were really glad they came to the... And then, and, you know, that's another thing about this, the content, uh, I mean, I saw a lot of references to AI and statistics on the pres- in the presentations. Did anyone count how many times we said AI-

Andri 12:05

in, like, how many

Greg 12:07

sessions I can't count that far. And ...even just in the... And even just as you're walking around, I don't... I think, I mean, it

Andri 12:12

could probably have been a thousand, one billion

Greg 12:14

times. Yeah. But the other thing that's really cool about it is how well it's balanced with- That's a real number. Is, is how well it's balanced with the foundational stuff, too. You know, the corrosion engineers, the inspectors, the integrity operating windows, the RBI, the,

Branden 12:29

eye,

Andri 12:30

the,

Greg 12:30

you know, da, la, da, da, you know, on and on. So I think it's a really good mix of first principles engineering presentations along with the AI and the statistical stuff, the, you know, pushing the borders of the frontier in technology and innovation. Yeah. I mean, we had- So you've done a great job, you and your team.

Andri 12:47

We had Mark Fronek, who was working on our, uh, digital

Greg 12:50

transformation

Andri 12:51

with Mason. I mean, the guy just... He

Greg 12:54

w- he did, uh,

Andri 12:56

made sure that

Greg 12:56

we

Andri 12:57

got really good at... He m- he went through con- his network, like most of the,

Greg 13:01

you know, track leads and everybody does.

Andri 13:03

Um, and he just was, went to

Greg 13:05

task with making sure we had

Andri 13:06

really good sessions

Greg 13:07

for that part, too. Not

Andri 13:09

that anyone else wasn't, uh, just as great

Greg 13:11

in,

Andri 13:11

in any of their tracks. Um, and I would say Jeremy, um, I think

Greg 13:17

he was new. He's never been

Andri 13:19

a, a lead before, so he kind of approached it, um, probably

Branden 13:23

more of

Andri 13:24

an engineer would. I don't know. Um,

Greg 13:26

he, he thought about what he,

Andri 13:29

what kind of things he wanted the Petrochem

Greg 13:31

track to cover. Mm-hmm.

Andri 13:32

cover, and then he thought about who in his network and with his, with his group that he put together,

Greg 13:38

um, would be able to deliver on that. Yeah.

Andri 13:40

then he just

Greg 13:41

just started

Andri 13:42

telling them, "You have,

Greg 13:43

you have to submit an abstract." Like, "You have to submit an abstract." Yeah. Yeah. "And you

Andri 13:47

to submit it."

Branden 13:47

He just pastored them and got them to do

Greg 13:49

So

Andri 13:49

just was like, "You're gonna talk on this. This is what... I, I, I,

Greg 13:53

Put, pick

Andri 13:53

this topic and you're the one who's gonna talk

Greg 13:55

about it."

Branden 13:56

that's gonna talk about it." W- what, what was the, what was the driver for starting up the Petrochem? Was it feedback that you guys had gotten? Was it something that the group, the, the coordinating

Andri 14:03

For su- for sure feedback. I mean, it was, it was sort of a little bit peppered into the tracks before. And so I think with the 2020... after 2024, um, you know, the group just came out and said, "You know, we probably need

Greg 14:17

need our

Andri 14:17

it's

Greg 14:17

own...

Andri 14:17

Petro- Petrochem to be, just be its own track."

Greg 14:20

just be its own track." I-- Yeah, that's awesome. Oh, glad you're... Hmm

Andri 14:22

Yeah. That's awesome. That's very cool. So we, you know, I'm already looking at '28,

Branden 14:28

I, I was literally just about to say, so what's gonna happen

Greg 14:30

after this? Start planning already. I don't know. Um- Is there a vacation planned? Is there some time off? So-

Branden 14:31

is there a vacation planned? I know, um- Is there some time off? So- Or is it straight

Greg 14:34

in?

Andri 14:34

I mean, again, uh, day one has been amazing, so, um, day two, I mean, hopefully is gonna be just as amazing. We've got just as many technical sessions going on. I really am trying to get through this week. Um, we have a new chair coming on. Um, Travis Harrington will be taking over as, uh, chair of our '28,

Greg 14:53

'28- Okay uh, Inspection

Andri 14:54

Summit. Mason, uh, Thomas is gonna be taking over as vice chair.

Branden 14:57

over as vice chair.

Greg 14:58

So,

Andri 14:58

you know, I thought I'd give him, like, a day or two- and then, you know, see if they wanted to start planning

Branden 15:03

28,

Andri 15:04

you

Greg 15:04

Yeah.

Andri 15:05

right. Some,

Branden 15:05

so Monday phone calls are going out.

Greg 15:07

Yeah, Monday. I think Monday.

Branden 15:07

I think Monday.

Greg 15:09

You know, it's funny, it's parallel with, uh, turnarounds. They say you start planning a turnaround at the end of the current turnaround. Yeah. You start planning the next turnaround. It's like, it's like you're totally used to it, totally used to it. Hey,

Andri 15:19

did you guys see the guy, like, girls with the pink shirts? That's from This One's for the Gals. I almost

Greg 15:22

forgot about them. No. Oh, is that

Andri 15:23

WIMI? So this year,

Greg 15:24

this year- WEMI

Andri 15:25

This One's for the

Branden 15:26

She's got... Yeah.

Greg 15:27

Uh,

Andri 15:28

so they are a wonderful

Greg 15:30

organization. Oh.

Andri 15:31

I think, y- you know, if you can, if you have a chance to do, to check and see what they do, 'cause, um, they work with all these high school, uh, uh, female students who are interested in STEM-related fields- Mm-hmm and they take them out to do things like this and other th- you know, other things. A lot... They do a whole curriculum on welding. They do a whole curriculum on, uh, you know, kind of all these other topics. I mean, if you wanted to support them, that's a really great organization. So we got about 15, uh, high school girls who came in to see what the summit was about today. Um, we also had, um, a group of students from the, um, mechanical engineering department at the University of Texas in San Antonio who came as well. We hosted them. Um, so yeah, we, you know, we, we... I think one thing for '28 is to see how we can engage with more students, more of the young group, and bring them in. What,

Branden 16:24

what did you say the group was for the

Andri 16:25

girls? This One's for the

Branden 16:26

This One's for the Gals? Yeah,

Andri 16:27

that's the name of the-

Branden 16:28

and are they, are they just local here in San Antonio, or are they regional, or-

Andri 16:32

they're based in Corpus Christi- Okay actually. So they drove down here.

Branden 16:37

Okay. Awesome.

Greg 16:37

Awesome. Actually- Spread

Andri 16:39

the love I don't, I don't know if they... Is that down or up from... I don't know. Well...

Greg 16:43

Is

Branden 16:43

Oh. Is it

Andri 16:44

it over?

Greg 16:45

it over? My

Branden 16:45

My Texas history is a little slow,

Greg 16:47

so- I think it's down. Is it down? It's down. Okay.

Andri 16:49

All right.

Greg 16:49

So I was right. But, uh, anyway, uh, I think it's great. Uh, and it's good for people to become, especially young people, to become more familiar with the careers- They all wanna be welders the possibilities, uh- Like, we talked to half of them, uh- The opportunities

Andri 17:02

I got a chance to talk to half of them earlier. They all, they're all going into welding. That's great. I was like, "That's

Branden 17:06

awesome." That's great. My wife wanted to go into welding back in the day. Did she? Yeah. Did she do welding? She's a nurse.

Andri 17:12

Oh, she- Close.

Greg 17:15

Close.

Andri 17:15

close. I don't know.

Greg 17:18

Yeah, I guess.

Branden 17:19

Oh, she's- close. Pretty close. Not close. It's

Greg 17:21

It's a

Branden 17:22

But yeah, no, Andrea, this has been fantastic. Really appreciate, um, all the effort, all the work that you guys have put in over the last two years. Um, we look forward to the next one. Look forward to tomorrow. Anything, uh, anything we gotta look out for for tomorrow?

Greg 17:35

Three Gray Beards panel. Oh, yeah. Yeah, 8:00 to 10:00.

Branden 17:38

Yes. There it is.

Andri 17:39

forget? Greg's gonna be- You're gonna be

Greg 17:41

in the room. You're gonna be, John Reynolds.

Branden 17:43

yep. So

Greg 17:43

you- John Reynolds, Ray Conett, and, uh, Clay.

Andri 17:47

Problem is, you don't, you don't, you're the only one that doesn't have a gray beard.

Branden 17:50

is

Greg 17:50

in there. It's getting, there. it's peppery. It's a little

Andri 17:52

little

Branden 17:53

you don't, you're the only one that doesn't have gray beard there's still, there's, it's in there. It's getting. It's sprinkled. It's gray. It's gray, gray. It, it was, it was less gray before I started working with Greg.

Greg 17:53

I think it was, it was less

Andri 17:54

it was less gray before I started working with Greg.

Greg 17:59

I'll take credit for that.

Branden 18:01

So-

Andri 18:01

But yeah, so start out in the... I mean, everything. I mean, from Three Gray Beards to any one of the panels- Yeah you'll

Greg 18:07

the panels- Yeah probably good till tomorrow- Yeah

Andri 18:08

any one of the technical

Greg 18:09

sessions, Well, the cool thing about the Three Gray Beards is we are gonna do podcast format.

Branden 18:13

beforehand.

Greg 18:14

Yeah, but that won't record. That's gonna be interesting.

Branden 18:17

that would- It's being recorded as

Greg 18:18

Are we recording?

Branden 18:19

not recording it. Oh, okay.

Greg 18:19

Oh, man.

Andri 18:21

No. Oh.

Branden 18:22

Nope. But we, we will take, uh... We'll have people be able to ask questions and, um, be able to engage, so it'll be really good,

Andri 18:28

So- And we've got another, uh, two really great, uh, energy exchange sessions going on in the theater there. We've got another, uh, set of,

Greg 18:38

uh,

Andri 18:38

emerging technology showcase at, during the lunchtime.

Branden 18:41

I, I really like the emerging technology being, uh, right there in the middle. I think that's a great setup for people walking by.

Andri 18:47

hap- Now, do you...

Greg 18:48

Yeah, that is great ...so that's our new theater- Yeah

Andri 18:50

style, if you will. Yep. Um, it's gonna... It's a little bit more open. It's more kind of in the

Branden 18:55

action. That's right. That's

Andri 18:56

so that's new. That's, uh, you know, uh, Matthew Cunningham, who works, um, in the meetings- All right and does a lot of our exhibits and stuff. Right there. Yep. That, that really was, uh, the way he wanted to design it this year. I,

Branden 19:07

I met him earlier. The cafe. He was great. The cafe,

Andri 19:09

that's also his idea. Oh, yeah? That's new, too. Good. The, the cafe that's in there as well. Yeah.

Branden 19:15

That's good. Yeah. It's pretty cool. And, and you mentioned the, the energy portion. What... Talk about that

Greg 19:19

bit?

Andri 19:19

energy exchange. So, um, this, uh, you know, uh, Brent, uh, who you should probably also talk to. Um, uh, so, uh, he was like, "You know, I want..." He's always wanted to do this,

Greg 19:32

these TED Ta- Type

Andri 19:33

of things. Uh, every year

Greg 19:35

he kept coming

Andri 19:36

back and saying, "You know, we should do this. We should do it.

Greg 19:38

It should

Andri 19:39

this way." Um, and I said, "You know what? You've been- Let's do it for the 10th. Like, you've been talking about this for probably two summits. Let's just

Branden 19:46

just plan it

Andri 19:47

plan it and

Greg 19:47

do it." I love it. And,

Andri 19:49

uh, so yeah,

Greg 19:50

um, I think- You keep it fresh, Andrea. You keep it fresh, you know? You- I don't... You know, I just

Andri 19:54

people's ideas, and I try to

Greg 19:55

them come true. That's all. Yeah. That's

Andri 19:57

all I'm doing really.

Branden 19:58

a facilitator

Andri 19:59

what I do. Yeah. I ma- I'm a solution. I, I p- offer solutions. Well, that's-

Greg 20:03

She's an instigator. I could be, I could be that. Oh, facilitator. I could be that. Yeah. Facili- I prefer facilitator.

Branden 20:08

Facilitator, yeah.

Andri 20:10

Facilitator, yeah.

Greg 20:11

Facilitator. Yeah. All right.

Branden 20:11

Well, great Well, Angie, thanks so much for joining us. I know you're super slammed running around everywhere, um, but appreciate you taking a few minutes with us and- Yeah and talking about

Andri 20:19

Anytime. Anytime.

Branden 20:21

all right. Well, then- Thank you, Yep.

Greg 20:22

Yeah. Take

Andri 20:23

so much

Branden 20:24

Thank you for listening to Upon Further Inspection, a Mechanical Integrity podcast. This episode was co-created by Inspectioneering, and CorrSolutions. Our producers are Nick Schmoyer, Jocelyn Christie and Jeremiah Wooten. This podcast is for informational purposes only and does not constitute legal or professional's advice. Listeners should seek their own qualified advisors for guidance. If you enjoyed this episode. Please join us next time wherever you listen to your podcasts. Until then, stay safe and stay informed.