Aboyne Pupils play key role at Offshore Europe 2015

This year’s Offshore Europe event at the AECC saw pupils from Aboyne Academy, with whom the school has a well-established partnership, play a key role on one of the ARCADION stands. Pupils had worked with ARCADION staff over the past year to assist in the stand designs and their preparatory work led to the opportunity for graphic design pupils to attend the exhibition. While a whole class was involved, designs prepared by S3 pupils Owen John, Ben Preston and Mhairi Welsh were selected by ARCADION to be incorporated on the stand and a “stand-out” design by James Knowles was also used in ARCADION’s pre-show promotional adverts in both the British Airways and Eastern Airways in-flight magazines.

In addition to the Design pupils involvement pupils from Hospitality classes attended the exhibition to assist with the provision of catering and worked hard during the week preparing and distributing large numbers of venison burgers, pasta dishes and fruit smoothies to many hungry delegates. The hard work of those Home Economic pupils and the ARCADION staff resulted in the collection of over £2000 in donations to the school.

All in all the school’s involvement in the exhibition was a unique learning opportunity for the pupils and staff involved and had the added benefit of supporting school funds.

The photo shows ARCADION Technical Director, Clive Gregory presenting a cheque for the donations collected to Academy Rector, Raymond Jowett.

Next month Europe’s greatest offshore exhibition Offshore Europe 2015 will take place in Aberdeen from 8 – 11 September. The exhibition, organised by the Society of Petroleum Engineers, attracts a global audience of engineers, technical specialists, industry leaders and experts to share ideas and debate the issues of the moment in the industry.

ARCADION are excited to be taking part again in the event and will be hosting 2 stands in hall 4 – stands 4E140 and 4E141.  As well as meeting the team and discussing our products and services over the 4 day event, we have our patented Interlocking 2+1 Bed System on display to demonstrate how we could assist in increasing your PoB by up to 50% and ultimately contribute to increased platform productivity.  In addition to this we will be featuring specialist electronic surveillance systems supplied by Synectics, a leader in the design, delivery and management of integrated security systems and solutions for oil and gas applications.

We are also pleased to be partnering Induced Energy on our catering stand this year.  Induced Energy, Britain's only commercial induction hob manufacturer, have partnered with ARCADION and provided us with our brand new marine and offshore suitable induction hobs for the event.  Based in Northamptonshire, Induced Energy have concentrated their resources on induction cooking methods and are transforming the way in which we cook through their state of the art technology with “wow” factor. Come along to our stand and see these in action as we cook up a storm throughout the event dishing out tasty venison burgers and other delicious treats.

Also working with us during the event are Stellex, who, established in 1937, combine a long standing tradition in catering equipment with modern manufacturing techniques, always incorporating good design, high quality materials and a skilled workforce.  They have provided us with our new mobile stainless steel catering units for the stand.

All in all it will be a busy and exciting week for ARCADION and we would love to see you there.

The last 8 months have seen the Art, Design & Technology pupils of Aboyne Academy working with ARCADION to design the graphics of the company’s 2015 Offshore Europe stands and also to contribute to an advert design to be included in both the British Airways and Eastern Airways in-flight magazines.

Both of the S3 Graphics Communications classes were involved with them working closely with Phil Hynd, ARCADION Design Technician, who gave encouraging feedback on their designs whilst working to ARCADION’s branding guidelines.

The designs for the Offshore Europe 2015 stands are still being finalised however two pupils were shortlisted for the in-flight magazine advert design - James Knowles and Jamie Price.  Both designs were very different and showed a flair for design and understanding of what ARCADION were looking for.

In the end it was felt the design content in James’s submission adhered best to the given specifications and, as well as appearing in the July/August British Airways Business Life in-flight magazine as the finished article, ARCADION also used the design as part of the double page advert included in the Eastern Airways summer in-flight magazine which will run from July to end of September.                           

James has been presented with copies of the Eastern Airways magazine, available at the time of this article, and will be provided with the British Airways magazine when copies are released.  The magazine adverts will also be on display at the Aboyne Academy reception and in the schools technical department.

Well done to everyone who was involved and congratulations to James for his winning design.  

(Left to right - Pupils Jamie Price and James Knowles and Phil Hynd of ARCADION)

ARCADION’s Clive Gregory and Lisa Cormack recently attended Aboyne Academy's 2014-2015 End of Year Awards Ceremony as invited guests celebrating our Partnership Charter with the school.

This annual event recognises the achievements of pupils during the school year and also showcases some of the extra-curricular talents of the pupils.  This year we were treated to interlude pieces from the schools Soul Band performing “Seven Nation Army” and Uptown Funk” and also a Highland Selection from the schools Pipe Band. 

The Partnership has certainly gone from strength to strength since its inception in 2012 with ARCADION personnel running various workshops with classes in support of the school’s curriculum and involving the pupils with our preparations and attendance at Offshore Europe 2013 and again for 2015. The Partnership is not about being a source of cash to the school, although the company does try to help where we can, but more about providing real life business demonstrations as to how we operate and how young people can engage with that to enhance their own prospects for employment. 

ARCADION also sponsor four annual Special Awards for Business Management, Design and Technology and Outstanding Individual Achievement, which is awarded to two recipients, so it was a great honour to join in with the celebrations of all those picking up awards for their dedication and efforts. 

“It is very heartening to see how talented and committed the Aboyne pupils are to their learning and development.  All the award winners were very deserving and it was a fantastic event as always” commented Lisa Cormack, ARCADION’s Business Co-ordinator.