Call for Proposals for the 2021 Young & Emerging Professionals Summit

The Compressed Gas Association (CGA) and the Gases & Welding Distributors Association (GAWDA) are excited to announce the return of the Young & Emerging Professionals Summit in August 2021. Last year, more than 40 presenters and panelists supported 10 sessions that attracted more than 2,000 participants from around the world. This event, sponsored by Weldcoa, is a strategic effort to share industry overviews, best practices, and experiences with young professionals in the industrial and medical gases sector.

The health and safety of our members is of the utmost importance. Therefore, the 2021 Summit will be held as a virtual event.

Call for Proposals

The 2021 Young & Emerging Professionals Summit will feature multiple web-based sessions on various topics across a 4-week span. Attendees will include industry professionals who are age 45 and younger or new to the industry.  Each session is approximately 2 hours long and features a presentation segment paired with a panel discussion.

This year’s schedule will be broken down into one topic area per week. Each week will feature a 100-level session that provides overview presentations following the supply chain including production, bulk storage and transport, packaged gas, and distribution to end use followed by a panel discussion with all presenters. The second session of each week will be a 400-level session that provides a deeper technical dive dissecting an incident and the effect it had on industry best practices and CGA positions. The topics for this year’s Summit are as follows:

• Acetylene & Liquefied Petroleum Gas: topics may include acetylene and liquefied petroleum gas production overviews, cylinder filling, distribution, safe use, and incident case studies;
• Inert Gases: topics may include air separation process overview, bulk operations and equipment, filling and storage, cryogenic safety, distribution, emerging uses and related safety issues, and incident case studies;
• Hydrogen: topics may include hydrogen production overview, HYCO plant overviews, bulk operations and equipment, filling and storage, distribution, emerging hydrogen applications, fuel cell technology, and incident case studies; and
• Oxygen: topics may include oxygen production, what differentiates medical oxygen from industrial oxygen, bulk operations and equipment, filling and storage, oxygen safety, distribution, lessons learned from the COVID-19 pandemic response, and incident case studies.

Speakers should maximize the use of practical, real-world events and experiences for engaging presentations as well as using high-quality images, videos, demonstrations, and other visual aids to enhance audience understanding. Our goal is to connect attendees with the real-life experiences and learnings that have shaped today’s best practices.

Presentations must avoid any marketing message and shall not promote any particular product or service. All presentations must comply with CGA’s Antitrust Compliance Policy. Incident presentations require permission from all parties involved.

Submission Guidelines

Presenters are invited to submit proposals for the 2021 Young & Emerging Professionals Summit. Presentation slots are approximately 20 – 30 minutes long for overview sessions and up to 45 minutes long for incident reviews.

Please submit a proposal detailing the following items:

• Presentation type: Topic overview (100-level) or Incident case study (400-level)
• Presenter name and Company
• Presentation topic area: Acetylene & Liquefied Petroleum Gas, Inert Gases, Hydrogen, or Oxygen
• Presentation title
• Brief description or outline of presentation content (250 word maximum)
• Three to five learning objectives the audience will take away from the presentation
• Estimated time required for presentation
• Will the proposed presentation include any incident or near-miss content? Yes/No
• Will the presentation include any live or video demonstration? Yes/No

Proposals must be submitted to CGA Committee Project Manager Tom Deary no later than March 19, 2021. Use the web form at the bottom of this page to send Tom an email.

Review Process

All submissions will be reviewed by CGA’s Young & Emerging Professionals Technical Education Task Force. Selection criteria will include relevance to the Young & Emerging Professionals audience, fit with the overall conference program, and suitability for the virtual environment. Final decisions on acceptance will be made by CGA Staff. Proposers will be notified whether their submissions have been accepted by April 9, 2021.

Questions?

If you have any questions, use the web form below to contact Tom Deary.