Ken Arnold, CEO of Paragon Engineering Services will present the history of offshore engineering companies in Houston and how evolving project management technology and globalization will affect this segment of the industry in the future.  Ken predicts that there will be fewer small (50 to 150 people) and fewer very large (1000+ people) companies performing this function as the workload shifts away from Gulf of Mexico projects, and detail engineering on very large international projects migrate from Houston to low cost engineering centers and host countries.  A greater share of Houston based engineering activities will be in the high value added areas of conceptual studies, application of new and innovative technology, project management and quality control.  Technology will enable companies to progress designs simultaneously in integrated teams, which are located at several locations throughout the world.