NPE Educational Program Is Largest And Most Diverse

Comprehensive Program Is Latest in Series of Innovations Adding Value to Show Attendance

Washington, D.C. — Virtually any visitor at NPE 2006 - from CEO to technician, from plastics processor to designer - will discover an educational event that adds even more value to attending this international plastics exposition, according to The Society of the Plastics Industry, Inc. (SPI), which sponsors the triennial NPE show. NPE 2006 will take place June 19-23 at Chicago's McCormick Place.

The educational agenda disclosed today by SPI includes 120 conference presentations and seminars. All but one of the events will be held concurrently with the show, at meeting sites adjacent to the exhibit floor. At least 72 of the presentations will be free of charge to all registered show attendees (as against 18 free presentations in 2003). Details on all free and paid events are available at www.npe.org/education. The attached table provides an overview of the program.

The NPE 2006 educational program is far larger and more diverse than at any previous NPE. While there are 120 presentations planned for 2006, there were 41 at NPE 2003. Among the NPE "firsts" at this year's show will be extensive programs on moldmaking and elastomer processing, a conference in Spanish for visitors from Latin America, seminars on emerging technologies like nanocomposites and bioplastics, and a "student summit" with events for high school- and college-age visitors.

Organizing the program was the responsibility of the NPE 2006 Education Committee, chaired by Todd Y. Bennett, president and general manager of United Southern Industries, Inc. "We were commissioned by SPI to develop a program so wide-ranging that it would provide industry intelligence, technical training, and practical knowledge to the broadest possible range of show attendees," said Bennett. "The result is yet another in a series of NPE 2006 innovations developed by SPI to make NPE attendance more valuable for more people than ever before."

Among other innovations cited by Bennett are multi-exhibitor pavilions for moldmaking, elastomers, and emerging technologies; and the new myNPE(TM) technology, which matches the business interests of registered attendees and exhibitors and enables them to connect online with the people they need to meet, not just at the show but months in advance.

NPE 2006 Educational Program Offers Many Events and Is Broad in Scope
The educational events at NPE 2006 will fall into four categories:

• FREE CONFERENCE: Any registered show visitor may attend presentations offered as part of this conference, of which Dow Chemical Company is the exclusive underwriter. It will be organized around five themes, one for each day: Future of Plastics, Global & Domestic Competition, New Technology and Innovation, Workforce Development, and Student Summit. There will be at least 72 free presentations, organized into sessions sponsored by SPI, the Society of Plastics Engineers (SPE), the Rubber Manufacturers Association (RMA), the U.S. Dept. of Commerce, the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), MoldMaking Technology magazine, Recycling Today magazine, Gabriel & Associates, and Avery Plastics Consulting.
• PROFESSIONAL TRAINING SEMINARS: Two series of intensive half-, one-, and two-day courses will be offered by SPE and the Society of Manufacturing Engineers (SME), respectively. The seminars are chiefly about technical aspects of plastics design, processing, materials, and testing. There will be 37 seminars in all, double the number offered at NPE 2003.
• SPECIALTY CONFERENCES. A series of seminars offered by the Rubber Division of the American Chemical Society will cover both thermoplastic and thermoset elastomer technology. A conference sponsored by B2B Portales, Inc. (publisher of Tecnologia del Plastico and Conversion magazines) will address the interests of visitors from Latin America and will be conducted entirely in Spanish; the three conference sessions will cover raw materials, injection molding, and extrusion.
• SINGLE-TOPIC SESSIONS. SPI and the Bio/Environmental Polymer Society will sponsor a four-day symposium on degradable plastics and bioplastics; it will be held in Chicago and conclude on Saturday, June 17, two days before NPE 2006. [A news release on the symposium is posted at www.npe.org/press.] During the show itself, the following single-topic events will take place: 1) A breakfast briefing cosponsored by SPI and Modern Plastics Worldwide magazine on "Doing Business in Central and Eastern Europe"; 2) a half-day seminar on "Understanding How to Design and Run Injection Molds 40% Faster," sponsored by Robert A. Beard & Assoc., Inc.; and 3) a half-day seminar on TPE over-molding design, sponsored by GLS Corporation.