{"id":22132,"date":"2022-05-17T01:36:46","date_gmt":"2022-05-17T01:36:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/saj.pachecostudios.com?p=22132"},"modified":"2022-05-17T01:44:14","modified_gmt":"2022-05-17T01:44:14","slug":"first-ever-utah-aviation-conference-draws-500-builds-community","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/state-news\/utah\/first-ever-utah-aviation-conference-draws-500-builds-community\/%20","title":{"rendered":"First-Ever Utah Aviation Conference Draws 500, Builds Community"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><em>Photo above &#8211; from left are, Dave Haymond, (Aviator of the Year), Brenda Maughan, (accepting the Disciple of Flight award for her father, LaVar Wells), Jared Esselman, Steve Durtschi (Airport of the Year &#8211; Skypark Airport), and Aaron Organ (Aviation Educator of the Year award). <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The Utah Aeronautics Division held its first\nconference on May 9-11 in Provo, Utah. The event was a huge success, with more\nthan 500 professionals in the aviation industry in Utah and across the country\nattending. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1000\" height=\"443\" src=\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/20220510_102046-edit.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-22136\" srcset=\"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/20220510_102046-edit.jpg 1000w, https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/20220510_102046-edit-300x133.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1000px) 100vw, 1000px\" \/><figcaption><em>Forty vendors filled the Utah Valley Convention Center in Provo.<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Forty vendors from all over the country set up\nshop in the Utah Valley Convention Center in Provo. Hundreds of aviation\nprofessionals, state and local officials, mechanics, engineers, planners and\nindustry leaders came together during the three-day event to improve safety,\nnetwork, share best practices and foster collaboration. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cBeing that this was our first conference, we\nwere all praying and hoping people would come,\u201d said Jared Esselman, Director\nof Aeronautics for the Utah Department of Transportation. \u201cWe opened on Monday\nwith just over 400 pre-registrants; but our on-site registrants took us to over\n500.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image is-resized\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/IMG_4608-edit.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-22135\" width=\"580\" height=\"272\" srcset=\"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/IMG_4608-edit.jpg 700w, https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/IMG_4608-edit-300x141.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 580px) 100vw, 580px\" \/><figcaption><em>Breakout sessions were offered with subject-matter experts.<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Participants were able to obtain cutting-edge\ntraining that offered continuing education credits, attend breakout sessions\nwith subject-matter experts, engage in networking opportunities and interact\nwith new industry technologies. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>One of the conference highlights was the\nimpressive student turn out for the Career Fair. More than a hundred high\nschool and college students had the opportunity to meet with companies,\nuniversities and flight schools to find employment opportunities and get\ninformation about careers in the aviation field. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"alignright is-resized\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/UtahAeronauticsConference-Highlights-040-edit.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-22134\" width=\"330\" height=\"231\" srcset=\"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/UtahAeronauticsConference-Highlights-040-edit.jpg 500w, https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/UtahAeronauticsConference-Highlights-040-edit-300x210.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 330px) 100vw, 330px\" \/><figcaption><em>Jared Esselman, left with Michael Huerta.<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>Another highlight, hearing from nationally\nrenowned keynote speakers, including Michael Huerta, former FAA administrator,\nBill Wyatt, Salt Lake City Department of Airports executive director and David\nNeeleman, Breeze Airways CEO. In conjunction with the conference, Provo City\nMayor Michelle Kafussi also made the exciting announcement that Breeze Airways\nis set to launch flights from the newly constructed airport terminal in Provo.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>A special awards ceremony was held to honor\nthose who have made significant contributions to the world of aviation. Aviator\nof the Year, Aviation Educator of the Year and The Disciple of Flight Award in\nhonor were all presented to well-deserving recipients. During the ceremony\nthere was also a beautiful tribute to the life and legacy of the late Utahn\nGail S. Halvorsen, the \u201cCandy Bomber.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Perhaps the most fulfilling part of the conference, Utah Aeronautics Division staff heard repeatedly that the event offered meaningful connections with the broader aviation community in Utah. \u201cThat was the goal,\u201d stated Esselman, \u201cto build a community.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1000\" height=\"379\" src=\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/20220510_085315-edit.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-22137\" srcset=\"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/20220510_085315-edit.jpg 1000w, https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/20220510_085315-edit-300x114.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1000px) 100vw, 1000px\" \/><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Photo above &#8211; from left are, Dave Haymond, (Aviator of the Year), Brenda Maughan, (accepting the Disciple of Flight award for her father, LaVar Wells), Jared Esselman, Steve Durtschi (Airport of the Year &#8211; Skypark Airport), and Aaron Organ (Aviation Educator of the Year award). The Utah Aeronautics Division held its first conference on May [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":22133,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-22132","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-utah"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/UtahAeronauticsConference-Highlights-071-edit.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22132","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22132"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22132\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22143,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22132\/revisions\/22143"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22133"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22132"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22132"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22132"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}