Photo taken from dinner cruise Monday night

The GoldSim User Conference 2024 was held last week, from September 9th to 11th, and it was a tremendous success with attendees from nine countries. The Conference celebrated the 20^th anniversary of the GoldSim Technology Group.

We had the pleasure of meeting with many of our long-time users as well as seeing many new faces. We extend our heartfelt thanks to all the participants who made this event a remarkable networking and learning opportunity for everyone involved.

Day 1: Pre-Conference Basic Training and Kickoff Event

The conference began on Monday, September 9th, with an optional pre-conference basic training session held at the Seattle Waterfront Marriott. This one-day course served as both an introduction to GoldSim for new users and a refresher for existing users. It covered all the basic features and provided a brief overview of several advanced features. Attendees engaged actively, asking numerous insightful questions, and the session was well-received. Presentation materials from the basic training session can be found here.

GoldSim training class taught by Jason Lillywhite

After a full day of learning and interaction, the conference officially kicked off with a dinner cruise in Elliot Bay.

View from the deck on the dinner cruise, looking toward the Seattle waterfront

The weather was perfect, and the views were stunning, creating an unforgettable backdrop for networking and relaxation. Good food and drink, combined with the breathtaking panorama of the Seattle skyline, provided opportunities for conversations and making new connections.

One of the many stunning views from dinner cruise, just after sunset

Day 2: Advanced Training and Mariners Baseball Game

On Tuesday, September 10th, the conference transitioned into advanced training sessions, covering more sophisticated concepts designed to help attendees apply GoldSim to real-world modeling projects. The training was divided into two tracks, allowing participants the flexibility to move between sessions that piqued their interest. Presentation materials from track A and track B of the advanced training sessions can be found here and here.

Advanced training class being taught by Rick Kossik

The day concluded with a fun-filled evening at a Mariners baseball game held at T-Mobile Park. Attendees enjoyed dinner and drinks in a luxury suite, where they continued to network and build connections in a relaxed setting.

View from our suite at the baseball game

Some of the lucky ones even had the chance to spend personal time with the Mariners' team mascot, the Mariner Moose. It was a delightful experience, especially for those who are avid baseball fans.

The Mariner Moose with Stefan Knopf

Day 3: Presentations, Posters, and Discussions

The final day of the conference, September 11th, was held at the Bell Harbor International Conference Center. The day featured eight invited presentations by GoldSim experts, covering a diverse range of applications and experiences.

Dave Hoekstra with SRK presenting on climate change impacting water balance models

The presentations included topics such as using GoldSim to help manage Arizona’s water resources, the historic use of GoldSim at the Hanford reservation, an overview of the use of GoldSim in the mining industry in Australia and incorporating climate change scenarios into GoldSim models. Presentation abstracts and presentations can be found here and here.

Sunil Mehta with Intera presenting on GoldSim-based modeling applications at the Hanford Site

Another important part of the conference was the poster presentations, where many of our users got to showcase interesting projects using GoldSim in useful and unique ways. Poster sessions were set up around the room, which gave ample opportunities to learn about various interesting projects.

Poster abstracts and the posters themselves can be found here and here.

We also held a competition for the best poster, giving everyone a chance to vote for their favorite. Congratulations to the winner Tony Zheng (of the University of Alberta and Okane Consultants) for for his poster “Building better water balance models for tailings and mine rock stockpiles”. Tony’s co-authors were Rebecca Hurtubise of AECOM and Nicholas Beier of the University of Alberta. Tony took home a $500 Amazon gift certificate.

Tony standing in front of his winning poster

A raffle drawing (for another $500 Amazon gift certificate) was conducted to pick a random winner from all the poster presenters.  The lucky winners were Hyun Jin Yu, Ki Tae Yang and Jong Soon Song from Chosun University in South Korea. Their poster was titled, “An evaluation of scenarios for a radioactive repository using GoldSim.”

Looking west from the marina toward the Olymoic Mountains before casting off on the dinner cruise

The GoldSim User Conference 2024 was a great success, thanks to our dedicated users’ enthusiastic participation and contributions. The event showcased diverse and innovative GoldSim applications. From insightful presentations to all the interesting poster sessions, attendees had ample opportunities to gain knowledge and network. Thanks to all of our speakers and poster presenters for making this conference a success. We look forward to seeing you at the next one!