The 2023 Annual Symposium was hosted by the Audubon Aquarium in New Orleans on November 13. The theme of this year’s Symposium was “More than just a DSO;” we can propel ourselves, our facilities, and our industry to the next level as we transition into Dive Program Administrators.
79 ADPA members attended the Symposium from 43 different facilities. 19 were first-time attendees!
We had an introduction and welcome from one of the ADPA’s founders, Jim Hart.
We featured 8 presentations from ADPA members:
- Under Construction (Aquarium of the Americas – Brendan De Grim)
- Dressing In, Dressing Up, Costume Diving at Aquariums (Vancouver Aquarium – Jeremy Heywood and Sam Symonds)
- Six Years and Half a Million Dives Later (ADPA Dive Stats – Halle Minshall)
- The Rising Tide of Zoo and Aquarium Dive Programs (Moody Gardens – Jake Emmert)
- Breaking Down Gender Bias in Life Saving Training (Monterey Bay Aquarium – Meriah Long)
- Diving into the Depths of Broadcasting Live from Underwater (Georgia Aquarium – Chris Duncan)
- A Remedy (St. Louis Zoo – Rick Smith)
- Compensation Challenges in Zoos and Aquariums in 2023 (Georgia Aquarium – Jeff Reid)
We had presentations from a few of our Gold Corporate partners:
- Animal Exhibits and Design, Rescue X, SCUBA Educators International, and Oceanears
2 Silver Corporate Partners joined us for the Networking Event – Fairway Electronics and Submersible Systems
The ADPA Founders Awards were presented:
- George Peterson received The Randy Wilder Award
- Todd Hall received The MaryAnn Buehn Award
- Holly Bourbon received The Jim Hart Award
Our second Symposium Raffle for the Brett Dodson Scholarship (now 2 in 2023) had extremely generous donations from Chris Wojcik- Animal Exhibits & Design, Faith Ortins – Blue Green Expeditions, Michele Tomillo – Fourth Element, Andy Yen – Fairway Electronics, Steve Jamroz – Divers Alert Network, Brian Saxon – RescueX, George Peterson – Monterey Bay Aquarium & Big Blue, Lauren Larese, Christeen Buban – Spare Air, and Erin Gerlach – Aves Epoxy.
