Global Trenchless Industry Gathers at 2017 NASTT No-Dig Show: Day One Recap

Day 1 at the 2017 NASTT No-Dig show was greeted by awesome weather and enthusiastic attendees and finished strong with the annual educational auction. Attendance so far for the conference is approximately 2,200 — the third year in a row that the No-Dig Show has exceeded the 2,000-attendee mark. Day 2 is under way this morning.



The show, co-hosted by NASTT and ISTT at the Gaylord National Resort & Convention Center in Washington, D.C., welcomed the more than 180 trenchless exhibiting companies, as well as attendees and technical presentation speakers.

For Benjamin Media, we are celebrating the 25th anniversary our flagship publication Trenchless Technology; attendees are invited to come and sign our anniversary banner at the booth (#827), noting their name and number of years in the trenchless industry.

We know that some of our readers were unable to make the trip to the nation’s capital for the event, which runs through April 13, so we compiled a social media snap shot of the first few days (Found at the bottom of the page) to fill you in on the show’s happenings.



Though there were pre-conference educational sessions on Sunday, April 9, the first official event was the annual Kickoff Breakfast, which gives the Trenchless Technology team the opportunity to formally recognize and present our Projects of the Year Awards for New Installation and Rehabilitation, as well as our Person of the Year Award. The Breakfast also drew together nearly all 25 past recipients of the Trenchless Technology Person of the Year. A group photo capped off that special exclusive club.



The 2017 Trenchless Technology Person of the Year recipient is Jim Rankin — an industry professional who has helped to shape the horizontal directional drilling industry over the last 40 years, with his innovative drill rig designs. Rankin gave an emotional acceptance speech (followed up his POY remarks with finishing first in the Educational Auction Super Hero Costume Contest, becoming Mario.) Follow this link to read the full story about Jim.

Jason Edberg with NTH accepted the 2016 Trenchless Technology Project of the Year award for rehabilitation from Trenchless Technology editor Jim Rush and managing editor Sharon Bueno. The winning project was the Rehabilitation of the Oakland Macomb Interceptor Drain. For more on that story, follow this link. We presented the Project of the Year for New Installation to Ron Halderman with Mears Group for the contractor’s work on The Indian River HDD Crossing project. For another look at that special project, follow this link.

The technical sessions feature 160 peer-reviewed technical papers and returning this year are special roundtables covering a variety of trenchless topics. First up Monday were roundtables for pressure pipe inspection and rehabilitation. They continue today with CIPP and on Wednesday with Improving Design Documents.



The day’s events concluded with NASTT’s 16th annual Educational Fund Auction & Reception.  The fundraising soirée — benefitting NASTT’s educational initiatives — is a themed event. For 2017, the theme was the “Heroes of the Underground.”

Stay abreast of NASTT’s 2017 No-Dig Show by following @TrenchlessTech, @WFM_Journal and @NoDigShow on Twitter. Or you can download the official (and free) No-Dig mobile app on either your iPhone or Android phone. And if you are sharing your 2017 No-Dig Show experiences in the social media world be sure to use the #NoDigDC2017 hashtag.
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