Wow what an opening to our 12th annual Flow-Cal Users Group!

As I'm sure you know, Crystal Reports is the reporting tool used in Flow-Cal products. Crystal Reports provides us several benefits including "on-demand" reports in the client, free distribution to our customers, and a visual design environment.

Each new Crystal revision impacts us to some extent. Crystal 2008, especially, gave us two major shocks; a huge increase in memory usage and a drastically modified method of controlling SQL in a report.

The 3rd Monday in September always kicks off the American School of Gas Measurement Technology that was held in Houston this year. This year over 1,200 participants were able to learn more about the science of gas measurement through lecture classes, hands-on classes and walking through the exhibit hall. It is always great to see current and old friends that have been made over the past 30 years in the industry!!

I always enjoy traveling to Pittsburgh to attend the Appalachian Gas Measurement Sort Course each year. This is always a very well attended gas measurement school with an excellent opportunity to discuss current and future issues that are impacting our industry today.

The Southern Gas Association Operating Conference & Exhibits was held in Jacksonville, Florida this year (2011). Flow-Cal was able to participate in the Distribution Measurement Roundtable and the Transmission Measurement Roundtable. It is amazing how similar the discussions are to our FAB-8 LDC and Pipeline Roundtable sessions.

I was able to drive by the Jacksonville Jaguars (football) stadium on my way out of the area. It was a great looking facility and I look forward to watching the Houston Texans win in that stadium!!

Flow-Cal participated in the CEESI 2011 Ultrasonic Meter User’s Workshop in Colorado Springs during June this year. This is an excellent conference that provides the ability for the industry to continue our discussions for the effective implementation of various brands and models of ultrasonic meters and how they should be validated within an organization.

The use of automated testing software has been around in software development shops for some time now. Software companies use automated testing to execute test cases reliably and in a very short amount of time. By having test cases automated, every build of the software can be tested quickly to catch any major defects and report them to the development staff.

Releases go through a much more thorough test process called regression testing where many automated test cases are run in succession to validate the software release. Key benefits of automated testing:

Flow-Cal made a visit to Winnipeg last week to participate in the Canadian Gas Association 50^thAnnual Gas Measurement School.  This annual event provided over 300 delegates with an excellent opportunity to develop and enhance their skills to stay on top of our rapidly changing industry.

I was finally able to stay at the Nashville, TN Opryland Hotel this year during the AGA’s 2011 Operations Conference and Biennial Exhibition held during May.  With over 1,600 attendees, over 120 individual presentations, and 30,000 square feet of exhibition space…this event included something for everyone. 

This year I made my first trip to ISHM, both as an exhibitor and as an instructor.  Having been to several different industry events over the years, I felt I was prepared and that it would be business as usual.  Much to my surprise, it was not the kind of event I was used to.  The exhibit booths are highly regulated to be simple and not flashy.  The purpose of ISHM is education, not sales.  The focus is on demonstrations and teaching about industry topics, products, and services.