The UK’s premier geotechnical conference and exhibition returns on 3rd & 4th July 2024 at the Warwickshire Event Centre.

Are current-ground investigations failing to deliver? Not necessarily. However, there’s room for improvement. From the procurement side to the supervision of and ultimately the delivery, we need to collectively and collaboratively make changes to deliver greater value.

Mark G. E. Toye is an accomplished Engineering Geologist with 26 years of post-graduate experience in UK Ground Investigations. Mark has worked with major contractors such as Norwest Holst/Soil Engineering Geoservices and Soil Mechanics/SOCOTEC. His active involvement in the British Drilling Association (BDA) dates to 2017, where he served as the inaugural Chair of the Technical and Standards committee. In May 2024, he assumed the role of organisation Chair. Mark is also a committee member of BSI and Ground Forum.

Coming soon

Hi I'm Katherine (she/her).

An award-winning rebel, a women’s equity consultant, and mining geologist. I’m the mental health & wellbeing chair for the Quarries National Joint Advisory Committees (QNJAC), and the founder of Bold as Brass, a women’s equity tribe and catalyst for industry culture change.

My career has been focused on the subsurface and mineral extraction but it always stung me how completely different my journey was in comparison to the men I worked with. I now consult on women’s safety in heavy industry workplaces; assisting employers with locating inequity and tracking down provision to level it out, as well as helping their workforce reach their ah-ha moment through providing talks, presentation, and training.

Bold as Brass amplifies the voices of advocacy, campaigns for women’s safety in heavy industry, and offers members access to free career coaching. Our aim is to disrupt the status quo long enough to make a lasting impact on workplace culture.

I’ve been working on improving women’s safety in traditionally masculine and safety critical workspaces for the last few two years, focusing on the top issues women face that are both dangerous and impacting upon their career progression.

I’ve infiltrated the entire PPE industry, from designers to regulators, to ensure the term ‘inclusive’ isn’t just a word muttered in meetings but is integral to the design process. Along side women of colour and women of faith, we are making the biggest strides in intersectional safety the country has ever seen.

It’s so important nowadays that we target the right platforms to bring more people into the industry – this has been declining over the last few years and we have struggled to get younger people into the industry… why is that? Is it because we aren’t promoting the different jobs the right way? Are people not aware that this industry exists? Well I wasn’t aware it existed until I was in 4th year at uni. With geology being the ‘forgotten’ subject, its good to promote it in a way that is engaging, yet understandable across the social media platforms that most people are glued to nowadays.

Luisa Hendry, now known as ‘That Girl That Makes Video’s About Rocks’ – @Scottishgeologist across social media, is a Senior Engineering Geologist at Story Contracting Ltd and Geology Communicator with widespread knowledge of Scotland’s Geology. Luisa’s experience includes the safe and effective management of project logistics and technical outputs of various ground investigations across the UK and spends her spare time travelling across the highlands of Scotland, making content, and educating the public via her various social media platforms. Luisa’s @Scottishgeologist page features educational videos on geology and has reaches up to 3M people a month and she has gained just under 390K followers over the last year across all platforms.

The talk (with slides) will be a very basic awareness session about neurodiversity, covering the gneiss (the nice, the good), the tuff (the tough, the bad), and the schist (the s**t, the ugly) aspects of this much-misunderstood term. It will comprise my ongoing learning/research on neurodiversity in engineering and my and others' lived experiences while working in the ground engineering employment sub-sector.

Martin is a multi-awarding EDI Champion and Principal Geotechnical Engineer for GHD. He is neurodivergent and visually impaired. He is a Chartered Engineer, Chartered Geologist, and a Fellow of the Institute of Diversity and Equality Professionals. He serves as the Geological Society Vice President for EDI and other committees.

This presentation will focus on the requirements for reducing uncertainty in the conceptual site model (CSM) by the use of appropriate sampling and analytical strategies. The talk will include the latest approaches to investigating sites and examine how new analytical tools might provide additional confidence in decision making processes. The use of suitable sampling methods, how to minimise cross-contamination, the need for appropriate containers, preservation, packaging and temperature control are all important considerations in ensuring samples are representative. A case study will highlight how data quality objectives can be used to assure that analytical results are fit for purpose. A summary will be provided of the key steps to improve your use of analytical testing.

Geraint is Technical Director and Global PFAS Practice Lead at ALS. He has 25 years’ experience in the contaminated land industry. Geraint is current chair of the Association of Geotechnical & Geo-environmental Specialists (AGS) contaminated land working group. He previously served two terms on the Society of Brownfield Risk Assessment (SoBRA’s) executive committee, led the Technical Panel and has been involved in several sub-groups including vapour intrusion and asbestos sub-groups. He is a member of the National Brownfield Forum and serves on EH/4, British Standard’s Technical Committee on soil quality.

Coming soon.

Tim has extensive experience of technical application sales of specialist products for the geotechnical, rail and civil engineering industries. Tim’s main passion is getting monitoring data into the hands of decision makers as quickly and easily as possible. He has been involved in supplying instruments to some of the worlds most prestigious projects and is responsible for ensuring the commercial direction of Geosense as well as offering technical input into current and future product development.

An introduction to day two at Geotechnica 2024 where talks will continue to challenge expectations on what can be achieved on and off site in geotechnical engineering.

An Engineering Geologist with over 30 years’ experience in the Site Investigation industry. Liz’s career started in the brownfield redevelopment of the West Midlands and she has worked as a Main Contractor, Local Authority Officer, Consultant and Ground Investigation Contractor throughout the UK. She is passionate about mentoring the next generation of geologists to develop careers in the Ground Investigation industry. Liz is currently the Secretary of the Western Regional Group of the Geological Society, is a past Chair of the Midlands Geotechnical Society and is a member of the Safety Working Group of the AGS.

Coming soon.

Peter has some 50 years of experience in the Geotechnical Industry predominantly within the Ground Investigation sector. This experience is reinforced with academic qualifications and membership of geotechnical bodies. He is a Chartered Geologist and a Chartered Scientist and is a UK Registered Ground Engineering Adviser. He has held various positions from engineer to Director. This has given him a wealth of practical experience, being involved in numerous diverse engineering projects and producing design data both in the field and laboratory as well as designing foundations and ground engineering solutions for projects across the UK.

Peter has delivered lectures to both undergraduates and post graduate students at both Brunel University and the University of Portsmouth where he is currently a Visiting Reader.

Peter has been actively involved in several industry initiatives aimed at improving knowledge and practice in the geotechnical industry. As an independent specialist, he is part of the AGS Ground Investigation working Group to report and guide on the state of geotechnical engineering in the UK.

An author of several technical papers Peter is Co-author of the ICE Handbook of Ground Investigation which is due to be published early 2025.

Coming soon.

Terry has 37 years in geotechnical, material laboratory and field testing. Terry has set up and run numerous field labs, to facilitate major infrastructure projects from the M27 upgrade, Belmarsh Prison Construction, flood alleviation scheme on the River Witham and Trent, to Motorway Resurfacing. Terry regards his best achievement in geotechnics to be setting up i2 Analytical’s Geotechnical lab in Poland.

Coming soon.

Ebenezer has nearly 30 years’ experience in managing the geotechnical design process of complex and demanding schemes. He is an experienced chartered geotechnical engineer and registered ground engineering (RoGEP) adviser.

In 2014, Ebenezer set up Geofirma Ltd to deliver a wide range of geotechnical consultancy and design services to the construction industry.

Ebenezer is very passionate about diversity and inclusion and the education of the new generation of ground engineering practitioners. He is one of the founding members of the innovative Ground Forum Undergraduate mentoring scheme, is a Ground Forum committee member, a RoGEP panel committee member and an AFBE mentor.

Pressuremeter testing can be a valuable tool during a site investigation project to assess in situ stiffness, stress and strength parameters of soil and rock. These parameters are widely used in the engineering design of modern complex structures, where an understanding of both the horizontal and vertical properties of the ground is required.

To ensure the collection of high quality test data and validate its subsequent interpretation, it is important to have an understanding of the factors that can influence pressuremeter testing. These should be considered from the early stages of project specification and tendering, and continue to be assessed and potentially modified during the course of the fieldwork program. Six linked steps that can help to maximise the effectiveness of pressuremeter testing are as follows:

1. Ground conditions
2. Pressuremeter type
3. Drilling rig type
4. Test pocket preparation
5. Test time scales
6. Alternative testing options

I have worked in the Site Investigation industry for 17 years. For the last 5 years I have been managing the pressuremeter testing department at In Situ Site Investigation. Prior to that I spent 12 years at Soil Mechanics / ESG / SOCOTEC UK, progressing from a site engineer through to managing the CPT and pressuremeter resources.

This presentation will provide an overview of geophysics within the environmental and engineering sector and how it can complement an intrusive ground investigation. It will include a brief introduction to the most common geophysical techniques from what it looks like on-site, survey limitations and what to expect from the results. This will be followed by a review of survey design and how to optimise the tender specification and costing process.

Jonathan joined TerraDat in 1994 following the completion of his PhD in geophysics at Cardiff University. As both a director and geophysicist, he has gained extensive experience with all aspects of engineering geophysics and continues to be actively involved in project work.

This talk will look at maximising production, data quality and depth potential of the CPT. Topics covered include deciding when to use piezocone (pore pressure measurement) and when not to, how to communicate the relative importance of depth and coverage to produce deeper tests, and how to utilise the efficiency, completeness and repeatability of CPT data to guid advanced discrete testing and produce reliable empirical calibration data pairs.

Joseph has been with Lankelma for 12 years and has 2 years experience in geotechnical consultancy. Joseph is responsible for Lankelma’s technical output from advanced in-situ testing, nearshore drilling services and calibration laboratory.

Julian will welcome attendees to day one of Geotechnica 2024 and outline what is to come from the geotechnical conference at this year's event.

Julian is Managing Director of the Equipe Group who are the UKs leading training and vocational assessment provider. He is a Past Chair of the AGS, was the Chair of the AGS Procurement of Ground Investigation Steering Group, Chair and Lead Author of the Yellow Book Revision Working Group, Chair of the JIWG Buried Services Group and Member of the BDA Training and Education Sub Committee. Julian has been involved in the geotechnical industry and is an active author and contributor to industry operational and safety guidance. He is also a UK Expert on TC182 WG4 which has revised and written ISO and CEN standards on geotechnical sampling and training and competency requirements for personnel working on geotechnical projects. He has been involved in the development of Level 2 and Level 3 qualification in land drilling and the new qualification for laboratory and field technicians.