The first ever International Operational Modal Analysis Conference, IOMAC, was held in the beautiful city of Copenhagen in Denmark in 2005.  Since then, every two years, IOMAC has been held in other beautiful and exciting cities in like Portonovo, Italy, Istanbul, Turkey, Guimaraes, Portugal, Gijón, Spain, and Ingolstadt, Germany.  All these European cities have hosted IOMAC and have seen how this conference has matured over the years, and has been the catalyst to make Operational Modal Analysis, OMA, a practical and useful tool for evaluating the dynamic behaviour of all kinds of structures.  When IOMAC started in 2005, the main purpose of the conference was to provide a venue for people interested in OMA to exchange experiences and research results in this field.  At that time OMA was still considered a new field and there was a clear need to better understand what OMA was about and its potential to be useful in many areas of structural vibrations.  Over the ensuing years, the IOMAC conferences have continued to be an excellent venue to exchange experiences on how to use OMA for a variety of applications, to report and discuss findings about the advantages and challenges of the technology and to share new research and advances on the applicability of OMA to many fields where vibrations are an issue.

As a departure from the traditional way of having IOMAC in the “Old Continent,” this time the 9^th IOMAC will be held in Vancouver, one of the most beautiful and vibrant cities of the “New Continent.”  The conference will be held from the 3^rd to the 6^th of July 2022.  In, addition to the conference, several pre-conference courses will be offered to people interested in gaining a deeper understanding of various aspects of OMA. As it has been a tradition with past conferences, the conference will include the “Lecture of Honor” and two keynote lectures.  The sessions during the conference will cover all major aspects of OMA, with focus on the following topics: Identification Techniques, Measurement Techniques, Applications in Civil Structures, Applications in Mechanical Structures, Comparison with Traditional Modal Analysis, Model Validation and Model Updating, Structural Modification, Structural Health Monitoring and Wind Turbines.

The theme of the conference is “Reaching Beyond Borders” and reflects the fact that OMA is not limited by any type of borders, physical or intellectual, and that there is a tremendous opportunity to explore new applications of the technology, so it is natural to join together to explore these new challenges. This includes researchers, practicing engineers and technicians, students, equipment vendors, and software developers.  All will have the opportunity to share their knowledge in this rather fascinating field and to improve their specific skills.

We expect that the 9^th IOMAC will be a source of both professional fruits and lasting friendships for all participants. We also expect that it will serve to identify topics of cooperation that will help the IOMAC Organization to fulfill its mission of promoting the interchange of information and technical cooperation. Above all, I hope it will contribute to create and strengthen our human and professional ties in goal to make OMA a useful and practical tool.

Dr. Carlos E. Ventura
Professor of Civil Engineering and Director of EERF The University of British Columbia Vancouver BC Canada

Conference Chair