Commercial diving events and trade fairs
A calendar checked event by event against the organisers' own sites - including which editions have already passed and which have not been announced.
For a working commercial diver there are really two events that matter: Underwater Intervention in New Orleans, 2–4 December 2026, which is the only large event on earth built specifically around commercial diving and ROV intervention; and Subsea Expo in Aberdeen, 10–11 March 2027, its North Sea equivalent, where the exhibition floor is free. Everything else on the calendar is for companies and buyers. Note that Oceanology International is biennial and its next London edition is March 2028 — the 2026 edition was held in March and has passed.
- What's still to come in 2026
- The 2027 calendar
- Looking ahead to 2028
- Which events are actually worth a diver's money
- Where divers actually meet employers
- What it costs to attend
- Date clashes to plan around
- Not yet announced, and discontinued
- How to get value out of a show
- Keeping a calendar that does not rot
- Questions
What's still to come in 2026
| Dates | Event | Where | What it is |
|---|---|---|---|
| 21–24 Sept 2026 | ROG.e (Rio Oil & Gas) | Rio de Janeiro, Riocentro | Brazilian offshore and pre-salt; subsea, IRM and the Petrobras supply chain. Biennial |
| 12–14 Oct 2026 | MTS Dynamic Positioning Conference | Houston, Texas | DP systems, DP incidents and vessel operations — directly relevant to DSV work |
| 28–29 Oct 2026 | IMCA Global Summit 2026 | Antwerp, Belgium | IMCA's flagship event, covering the diving, marine, ROV and offshore survey divisions. Contractor leadership |
| 2–5 Nov 2026 | ADIPEC 2026 | Abu Dhabi, ADNEC | The whole energy value chain, with a large Middle East subsea and diving contractor presence |
| 3–6 Nov 2026 | DEMA Show 2026 | New Orleans | Recreational scuba trade show. Adjacent only — but some commercial schools recruit students here |
| 10 Nov 2026 | GUH Umbilicals Conference | Westhill, Aberdeenshire | Umbilical design, manufacture and installation |
| 17 Nov 2026 | GUH Deepwater Wind Symposium | Aberdeen, P&J Live | Floating and deepwater offshore wind subsea scope |
| 24–25 Nov 2026 | Offshore Energy Exhibition & Conference | Amsterdam | Offshore energy including wind and marine contracting |
| 2–4 Dec 2026 | Underwater Intervention 2026, co-located with the International WorkBoat Show | New Orleans, Morial Convention Center | The North American commercial diving, ROV and subsea intervention event. Run in partnership with ADCI and the MTS ROV Committee |
Already held in 2026
Listed so you do not plan around them by mistake: Oceanology International London (10–12 March 2026 — biennial, next edition 2028), Subsea Expo 2026, ONS 2026 (24–27 August, Stavanger) and EUBS 2026 (14–18 September).
The 2027 calendar
| Dates | Event | Where | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 27–28 Jan 2027 | Offshore Heavy Lift Asia | Kuala Lumpur | Heavy lift and offshore construction |
| 10–11 Mar 2027 | Subsea Expo 2027 | Aberdeen, P&J Live | Europe's largest annual subsea exhibition, run by Global Underwater Hub. Theme "Bridging the Gap". Exhibition floor is free |
| 6–8 Apr 2027 | Ocean Business 2027 | Southampton, National Oceanography Centre | Biennial. Hands-on ocean technology with on-water and dockside demonstrations |
| 13–15 Apr 2027 | OSEA 2027 / Offshore Energy Week | Singapore, Marina Bay Sands | Biennial. South-East Asian offshore oil and gas; regional diving contractors |
| 3–5 May 2027 | OTC 2027 | Houston, NRG Park | The world's largest offshore energy conference, around 25,000 attendees |
| May 2027 (dates unconfirmed) | SPUMS Annual Scientific Meeting | Philippines | Diving medicine. Venue confirmed, dates not yet published on the society's own site |
| 23–27 May 2027 | AsMA / UHMS Annual Scientific Meeting | Dallas, Hilton Anatole | Undersea and hyperbaric medicine, now run jointly with the Aerospace Medical Association |
| 15–17 Jun 2027 | Seawork 2027 | Southampton, Mayflower Park | Commercial marine and workboat, on-water. Good for UK inshore diving employers |
| 15–17 Jun 2027 | UTC 2027 — Underwater Technology Conference | Bergen, Grieghallen | Norwegian subsea technology. Theme "Subsea Success in a Volatile World" |
| 16–17 Jun 2027 | Global Offshore Wind 2027 | London, ExCeL | 25th edition; Europe's largest offshore wind event |
| 21–24 Jun 2027 | OCEANS 2027 Aberdeen | Aberdeen, P&J Live | Marine science and ocean engineering; 400+ technical papers |
| 7–9 Sept 2027 | SPE Offshore Europe 2027 | Aberdeen, P&J Live | Biennial. Europe's leading offshore exhibition and conference |
| 8–11 Sept 2027 | EUBS 2027 (51st Annual Scientific Meeting) | Copenhagen | Diving and hyperbaric medicine and physiology |
| Dates not published | WindEurope Annual Event 2027 | Copenhagen, Bella Center | Venue confirmed; dates not yet announced. Registration opens December 2026 |
Looking ahead to 2028
| Dates | Event | Where |
|---|---|---|
| 14–16 Mar 2028 | Oceanology International London 2028 | ExCeL London — biennial, even years |
| 21–23 Mar 2028 | OTC Asia 2028 | Kuala Lumpur |
| 26–31 Mar 2028 | SPUMS 2028 | Venue to be announced |
| 13–15 Jun 2028 | Seawork 2028 | Southampton, Mayflower Park |
| Not announced | ONS 2028 | Stavanger |
Which events are actually worth a diver's money
Most industry calendars list everything and rank nothing, which is useless if you are paying for your own flight. Here is the honest hierarchy.
Tier 1 — worth a working diver's own money and leave
Underwater Intervention (New Orleans, 2–4 December 2026). The only large event built specifically around commercial diving and ROV intervention. Because it runs in partnership with ADCI, the US diving contractors, dive schools, chamber and helmet manufacturers and life support suppliers are all physically in the room. If you go to one event, go to this one.
Subsea Expo (Aberdeen, 10–11 March 2027). The North Sea equivalent, with heavy contractor presence — Boskalis, TechnipFMC, Subsea7, DeepOcean, Bibby. The exhibition floor is free, which matters a great deal if you are between contracts.
Tier 2 — useful, but company-oriented
Offshore Europe (September 2027) and OTC (May 2027) are buyer and seller events. Divers attend and walk the contractor stands, but the conversations on the floor are procurement and technology, not hiring. Seawork (June 2027) is genuinely useful if you work inshore or in marine civils, where small operators hire directly and informally. UTC Bergen (June 2027) is worth it if you are targeting Norwegian sector work, though it is engineer-heavy.
Tier 3 — for companies and buyers, not divers
ADIPEC, ONS, ROG.e, OSEA, Offshore Energy, WindEurope, Global Offshore Wind, OCEANS and the MTS DP Conference. Oceanology International belongs here too, despite its reputation: it is instrument and sensor-led — hydrography, sonar, AUVs — and a diver gains little beyond seeing new kit.
The medical track
For diver medics, DMTs and hyperbaric staff rather than general divers: EUBS (Copenhagen, September 2027), AsMA/UHMS (Dallas, May 2027) and SPUMS (Philippines, May 2027).
Recreational, noted only as adjacent
DEMA Show, InterDive within INTERBOOT in Germany, and the various GO Diving shows. Some commercial diving schools recruit students at these, which is not the same as a route to offshore work. Note in particular that InterDive is not a commercial diving fair — it is a recreational diving hall inside a boat show, and it gets miscategorised constantly.
Where divers actually meet employers
| Event | Recruitment value |
|---|---|
| Underwater Intervention | Strongest. Dive schools and contractors recruit on the floor; the ADCI partnership means personnel managers attend |
| Subsea Expo | Has consistently hosted skills and careers activity through Global Underwater Hub. Check the 2027 programme before travelling specifically for it |
| Seawork | Small-boat and marine-civils operators hire directly. Low formality, high access |
| Offshore Europe / OTC | CVs get taken and routed to HR portals. Low conversion |
| ADIPEC | Middle East contractors do recruit, but through agencies rather than on the floor |
| Everything else | Effectively zero direct recruitment |
Worth being straight about this: most saturation diver hiring still happens through contractor portals, agencies and personal referral, not at trade shows. Events are for visibility and contacts, not for applications. Go to be remembered, not to be hired on the day.
What it costs to attend
The general pattern is that exhibition floors at the big trade shows are free or near-free, and the conference or technical programme is the paid part — typically several hundred pounds or dollars. For a diver, the free exhibition pass is almost always the right ticket.
The only fully published pricing we found for 2026–27 is the IMCA Global Summit 2026: members £515 early bird and £575 standard; non-members £775 early bird and £865 standard. Subsea Expo 2027 confirms the exhibition is free with a paid Premium Conference Pass for the conference theatre, though the price was not published at the time of writing. ADIPEC offers free visitor registration alongside a paid delegate pass. Most other events publish no prices on their public pages.
Date clashes to plan around
- 15–17 June 2027 is congested: Seawork in Southampton and UTC in Bergen run on identical dates, with Global Offshore Wind in London overlapping on 16–17 June.
- 21–24 June 2027: OCEANS Aberdeen lands the following week at P&J Live.
- Aberdeen's P&J Live hosts four listed events across 2026 and 2027 — the Deepwater Wind Symposium, Subsea Expo, OCEANS and Offshore Europe. If you are travelling to Aberdeen for one, check what else is on that month.
- March 2027 is clear of the usual clash: Subsea Expo has no Oceanology International conflict, because Oi is out of cycle until March 2028.
Not yet announced, and discontinued
This section exists because most calendars quietly carry forward stale dates rather than admit they do not know.
| Event | Status |
|---|---|
| Oceanology International Americas | Appears dormant. Last held 14–16 February 2023 in San Diego. No future edition announced; the official site now points visitors to the London event |
| Underwater Intervention 2027 | Not yet announced. It rides on the International WorkBoat Show, whose 2027 dates are also unpublished. Historically early December in New Orleans, but we will not publish a date until it is confirmed |
| ADCI standalone annual conference | ADCI's public site carries a meetings section but publishes no calendar, dates or venues. Its visible annual presence is as a partner of Underwater Intervention. Contact ADCI directly rather than relying on any third-party date |
| IMCA events beyond the Antwerp summit | No 2027 IMCA seminars, regional meetings or AGM dates published |
| WindEurope 2027 | Venue confirmed (Bella Center, Copenhagen), dates not published. Registration opens December 2026 |
| ONS 2028 | No dates published; the site says only "welcome back in 2028" |
| Subsea Expo 2027 conference pricing | Not yet published — registration page reads "coming soon" |
How to get value out of a show
If you are paying for your own flight and hotel, treat an event as a work trip with objectives rather than a day out.
Before you go. Get the exhibitor list and pick fifteen stands, not fifty — the contractors running saturation spreads, the crewing agencies that actually place divers, the schools if you are still training, and the manufacturers whose kit you work with. Look up who from each company is attending. Take printed CVs even though nobody asks for paper any more; on a trade floor it is still the fastest way to leave something behind.
On the floor. Personnel and operations people, not sales, are the ones worth finding. Lead with what you hold and what you have logged — certification, bell runs, lockout hours in the last twelve months, medical and survival expiry dates — because that is exactly what a vacancy screens on. Ask who handles crewing for their diving division and get a name and an email rather than a QR code to a portal.
Afterwards. Follow up within a week, while they can still place you. Register with the agencies you met and keep your availability current with them; agency systems go stale fast and the divers who get short-notice calls are the ones whose records are up to date.
Keeping a calendar that does not rot
Industry event calendars decay faster than almost any other kind of published information, and most of them fail in the same three ways. They carry forward last year's dates for an event that has not announced; they list biennial events as annual; and they keep publishing shows that have quietly stopped running.
Three rules we apply to this page, and that you can apply to any other calendar you read:
- Check the organiser's own site, not an aggregator. Every date above was verified that way in September 2026.
- Treat "not announced" as information, not as a gap to fill. Underwater Intervention 2027, WindEurope 2027 and ONS 2028 all have no published dates, and saying so is more useful than guessing.
- Watch the biennials. Oceanology International London, Ocean Business, OSEA, Offshore Europe, ONS, OTC Brazil and Rio Oil & Gas all run every other year, and they are the ones most often listed wrongly.
Questions
Which trade show should a commercial diver go to?
Underwater Intervention in New Orleans, 2–4 December 2026, if you are in or near the Americas — it is the only large event built specifically around commercial diving and ROV intervention, and it is run in partnership with ADCI. In Europe, Subsea Expo in Aberdeen on 10–11 March 2027, where the exhibition floor is free.
When is the next Oceanology International?
Oceanology International London is biennial. The 2026 edition ran 10–12 March 2026, so the next one is 14–16 March 2028 at ExCeL London. Oceanology International Americas appears dormant — the last edition was February 2023 and no future edition has been announced.
Is there a European equivalent of Underwater Intervention?
No dedicated one. Subsea Expo in Aberdeen is the closest, but it is a subsea industry show that diving is part of, rather than a commercial diving show. InterDive in Germany is a recreational diving hall inside a boat show and is frequently miscategorised as a commercial event.
Do events cost much to attend?
Usually the exhibition floor is free and the conference programme is paid. IMCA's Global Summit 2026 is £515–£575 for members and £775–£865 for non-members; Subsea Expo's exhibition is free with a paid conference pass. Most other events do not publish prices publicly.
Can I find a job at one of these?
Underwater Intervention is the one where it genuinely happens, because dive schools and contractors recruit on the floor. Elsewhere, expect to hand over a CV that gets routed to an HR portal. Most saturation hiring happens through contractor careers pages, agencies and referral.
Which events matter for diving medicine?
EUBS — the European Underwater and Baromedical Society — meets in Copenhagen on 8–11 September 2027. The joint AsMA/UHMS scientific meeting is in Dallas, 23–27 May 2027, and SPUMS meets in the Philippines in May 2027 with dates still to be confirmed.
Every date above was verified against the event organiser's own website in September 2026. Calendars decay quickly and several official sites were visibly out of date when checked — if you are reading this months later, confirm before booking travel. Spotted something wrong? Tell us and we will fix it.