NPE2009 keeps on growing, likewise Antec

The Society of the Plastics Industry (www.plasticsindustry.org), NPE’s producer, just announced four more events that will be combined with the triennial plastics industry extravaganza. There will be eight expos and conferences comprising NPE2009 when the doors open at the McCormick Place convention center.

The four newly added events are:

● PET Strategies Plus: a conference produced by Packaging Strategies and focused on business strategy, issues, and technologies related to PET packaging. www.packstrat.com

● Time Compression: the inaugural edition of a conference and expo produced by Gardner Publications that focuses on technologies for rapid product design and development. www.timecompressionexpo.com

● Latin American Plastics: “Trends, Opportunities, and Technologies to Improve the Competitiveness of the Latin American Plastics Industry” conference produced by B2B Portales and its Tecnología del Plástico and Conversión magazines to be conducted in Spanish. www.plastico.com/seminarios/npe09

● Coatings for Plastics: a conference organized by the Federation of Societies for Coatings Technology (FSCT) for those who specify and use coatings on plastics, as well as for coating manufacturers and raw material suppliers. www.coatingstech.org

All four of the newly added events will be in McCormick Place’s new West Building, along with Antec, MoldMaking Expo, and “The Business of Plastics.” McCormick West, new since NPE2006, also contains a portion of the NPE2009 exhibits. In addition to its sprawling exhibit space, it offers an adjacent meeting space for up to 61 concurrent conference sessions.

Called “Technology Central” by SPI, the West Building will also house such innovative SPI-developed programs as the Emerging Technologies Pavilion, the first International Plastics Design Competition, a Technology Theater where exhibitors can make presentations or demonstrations, and other multi-exhibitor specialty pavilions.

Gene Sanders, SPI’s VP of trade shows, said, “There has never been anything like this multiplicity of conferences and expositions at a plastics event.” Following that understatement, he noted that clicking the “Register” button at www.npe.org will bring prospective NPE visitors face-to-face with a number of multievent package plans and discounts.

Antec Also Showing Growth

The same day that SPI announced the four new events collocating with NPE2009, the Society of Plastics Engineers (SPE) reported that it too was growing notably. The conference organizers have received more than 720 technical paper submissions for the 2009 edition in Chicago, nearly 200 papers more than at Antec 2008. SPE said the preliminary program will be finalized by mid-January, so check the website for updates at www.4spe.org.

In the meantime, here’s one interesting example of the Antec forums that will be held during NPE2009: “Plastic Microfluidics: Transformative Technology for Tomorrow,” sponsored by SPE’s New Technology Committee. The topic list includes polymer microfluidic biochips, biological applications of microfluidic devices, liquid jet printing at nanoscale resolution, and more.

International Visitors: Apply for Visas Now

To improve its global registration, SPI is encouraging international attendees to start the process of securing a visa, pointing out that it can take one to three months (and sometimes longer) for the visa to arrive. Resources for obtaining a visa can be found at www.npe.org—click on “International”—and at www.unitedstatesvisas.gov/index.html.