ARGUS International Inc. hosted its second annual ARGUS Connect event on Thursday, August 8, 2024 at the Hilton Inverness in Denver, CO. As the name suggests, this event is an opportunity to connect with our customers and aviation subject matter experts from across the industry. This year’s Connect built on our experiences from 2023’s inaugural event and delivered an engaging, informative series of panels and breakout groups.
The opening panel, “Legal Pitfalls for Ground and Flight Operations,” was led by ARGUS President Mike McCready, and featured attorney Kali Hague of Jetlaw and John Langevin of Jet Aviation. They provided an informative take on common legal hazards faced by aircraft operators, maintenance organizations, and FBO’s (Fixed Base Operators). Additionally, they fielded questions on fuel contamination and the adoption of Safety Management Systems by FBO’s and ground handlers.
This was followed by a discussion of International Operations and Operational Security, with John Cauthen of MedAire and Adam Hartley of Universal Weather and Aviation. These topics are of particular interest to many of our auditing and consulting clients, as the landscape is constantly shifting and security is becoming an ever greater concern with much of eastern Mediterranean and Southwest Asian airspace in various stages of conflict. The topic of GPS spoofing was particularly informative, as this has become a significant threat in these regions and shows no signs of abating.
The morning concluded with a panel discussion of our core service, “Using Your Audits to Drive More Business,” hosted by ARGUS Vice President of Business Aviation, Ed Wandall. The panel featured James Evans and Ed Fares of Sun Jet Aviation, Jonathan Prohaska of PlaneSense, and Suran Wijayawardana of FlyHouse. They explored the need to adapt to industry changes without reducing safety, in particular ways to mitigate the ongoing pilot shortage in business aviation through ARGUS’s new Pilot Gateway training agreement. Our audit services play an important role in this for those operators who choose to align themselves to an industry-recognized standard of excellence, the ARGUS Platinum rating.
The afternoon began with a panel on FAA Regulations and Relations, with Jetlaw managing partner Kent Jackson and retired FAA Regulatory Specialist Larry Richards of ARGUS PRISM consulting. This is a topic of continuing interest to aircraft operators, and they provided an engaging discussion of changes in the regulatory environment, the challenges of starting up a new charter operation, and the effects of FAA reorganization on oversight and approvals.
The final discussion panel dealt with Industry Trends and Financials, with Doug Gollan of Private Jet Card Comparisons, Mike Rice of Signature Aviation, and Katya Brozyna of Jeffries Aviation & Aerospace Investment Banking. They led a lively discussion of the current state of the charter market, which included especially interesting takes on current economic trends and how these might affect our client’s business models in the future.
The day ended with breakout discussions between conference attendees and ARGUS team members. These sessions were particularly valuable, as each group offered their thoughts on our current products and services. Several attendees offered ideas for increasing the visibility of our services throughout the industry in ways would both highlight their achievements and reinforce ARGUS’s status as the premier solution for aviation auditing and consulting. Connect 2024 was an engaging and informative event, with many opportunities for both ARGUS staff and our customers to learn from each other. We are already making plans for next year’s event and look forward to more opportunities to “connect” with our customers.
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