Entries for 2015 Northeast Oil & Gas until Awards now open

Entries for the much-anticipated 2015 Northeast Oil & Gas Awards will continue to be accepted until the submission deadline of Thursday, Dec. 11.

The event, which is also sponsored by media sponsor Marcellus Business Central, will feature an awards gala dinner on Wednesday, March 25, 2015 in Pittsburgh.Oil-&-Gas-Awards

The Oil & Gas Awards is a 5-star red carpet, tuxedo affair that attracts the most senior and well-respected leaders within the oil and gas industry. The Industry Summit brings together the leading organizations in each region to network and share their experiences on the topics most important to the industry.

The awards are a platform for the oil and gas industry to demonstrate and celebrate the advances made in the key areas of environmental stewardship, efficiency, innovation, corporate social responsibility and health & safety.

In addition to the awards event, the Northeast Industry Summit will be held immediately preceding the awards gala dinner. The Northeast Industry Summit will provide an extended platform to deliver strategic and operational business insights that have clear commercial benefits. The draft agenda will be released shortly.
Equal parts Tinder and Foursquare, the new HelloTel app aims to connect travelers with fellow road warriors — but has much bigger dreams down the road.

Entrepreneur Marc Preston conceived of the app while he was stuck alone in a hotel room in Las Vegas for a trade show.

“I was by myself with nothing to do,” he said.

Enter HelloTel, which allows travelers to check into a hotel and then broadcast that they’re interested in meeting up for drinks, dinner or networking. Tinder is a dating app that works on proximity, but not specific location. Foursquare’s Swarm feature lets people virtually “check in” to a specific place.

HelloTel combines the two functions, helping lone travelers break through that uncomfortable feeling of sitting alone in a hotel lounge.

“There’s a million companies out there trying to be the next Tinder,” Preston said. “Will people use (HelloTel) for that? I’m sure. But it was meant to be a business app.”

HelloTel is one of a growing number of apps that aim to connect fellow travelers, especially since hotel lounges and hostels now are often filled with singles staring at their smartphones.

Another app, Tripr, unabashedly claims to be the Tinder of travel apps, allowing people to meet up virtually before they even leave home, so they can spend less time finding each other once they’ve arrived.

HelloTel launched in October, and now a new version is rolling out to the Apple and Android app stores this month. The new version emphasizes Preston’s vision of an app connecting travelers with the hotels, allowing them to order room service, request laundry service or summon a Lyft or Uber ride.

HelloTel provides basic information about users to the hotel, allowing staff to see who has checked in, which would allow them to create a social display in the lobby, or even trigger discount deals when HelloTel users walk past a nightclub or restaurant. Preston hopes HelloTel becomes the de facto app for travelers who can download a single app, rather than a separate app for each hotel or resort.

The company is not releasing data about how many people have downloaded and are using the app.
“There’s a million companies out there trying to be the next Tinder,” Preston said. “Will people use (HelloTel) for that? I’m sure. But it was meant to be a business app.”

Listed below are the categories for the upcoming awards.