After an interesting side scan sonar lecture at Periplus the 19th class visited the Offshore Energy Exhibition & Conference (OEEC) in Amsterdam. OEEC is an annual event focused on the complete offshore energy industry, from oil & gas to wind and marine energy. They visited the exhibition, but also attended a workshop on Hydrographic Software organized by the Hydrographic Society Benelux. The future of hydrographic software will change considerably over the coming years. We see the coming years autonomous and distance controlled systems take a larger role. But also the reuse of already existing data will become more important. We expect that the collection of data “In the field” shall change considerably and the acquisition of “Big Data” will grow. What will be the influence on the software, the operator of these systems and the handling of this data?