CW Conferences: A what and who preview

Our primary job here at CompositesWorld is to deliver to you, in a variety of forms, information you need to help you design, tool and manufacture composite products. One of the ways we do this is in person, via conferences designed to put you in touch with subject-matter experts in a variety of markets. October, November and December are our busiest conference months, so I thought a quick preview of what and who we have on tap might help you decide which events to attend. First up, Oct. 17-18, and colocated with the SAMPE Tech conference, is the 2011 Investment Forum in Ft. Worth, Texas. Following that, Nov. 9-10 in Charleston, S.C., is the 2011 High-Performance Fibers conference. Closing out the year is Carbon Fiber 2011, Dec. 5-7 in Washington, D.C.

The 2011 Investment Forum — cochaired by Michael Del Pero, vice president of FocalPoint Partners LLC; and Steve Speak, president of Steve Speak Coaching and Consulting — explores the global and regional outlook for composite materials in commercial aviation, sporting goods, wind energy, construction and infrastructure, CNG and hydrogen storage tanks and marine and automotive applications. Speakers and topics include the following:

• Tim Dick, general partner at Startup Capital Ventures will discuss how to work with venture capitalists.
• Sanjay Mazumdar, CEO of Lucintel will look at growth opportunities in composites.
• Del Pero will discuss increasing business value through nonorganic growth.
• Speak will discuss the effect of technology and composite market acceptance on the advanced materials value chain.
• D.J. DeLong, president of DeLong and Assoc. and a representative of AKSA Carbon Fibers, will discuss the challenges of industrializing carbon fiber composites for emerging markets.
• Jon Fox-Rubin, president and CEO of Fiberforge, will discuss transitioning a company from an R&D firm to a production firm.

The 2011 High-Performance Fibers (HPF) conference — chaired by Dana Granville, composites materials engineer, Materials Manufacturing Technology Branch, Weapons Materials Research Directorate, at the U.S. Army Research Laboratory — will cover the diverse business opportunities and technical challenges that lie ahead in high-growth applications such as body and vehicular armor, high-performance rope and cordage and sporting goods, as well as in the blast-resistance, fire-resistance, marine, aviation and aerospace markets. HPF speakers and topics include the following:

• Rob Wassem, VP business development at LCOA Composites, will present information on his company’s shield material.
• Dr. Norman Clough, technology leader PTFE Platform Technology at W.L. Gore and Assoc., will discuss innovations in ePTFE composites.
• Marcia Price, president of Vector Strategy Inc., will review the ground vehicle and armor forecast through 2020.
• Peter Davis, OEM sales manager Engineered Specialty Fabrics at Saint-Gobain Adfors America Inc., will review glass fiber product reinforcement options.
• Brian Morin, president of Dreamweaver International, will review hybrid microfiber/nanofiber battery separators.

The cochairs for the 2011 Carbon Fiber (CF) conference are Steven Carmichael, director of sales, Grafil/Mitsubishi Rayon Co.; and Tom Haulik, carbon fiber sales manager at Hexcel. This popular event will focus on the current supply-and-demand situation for carbon fiber as well as prospects for growth of new carbon fiber composite applications. The CF keynoter, Bruno Beral, head of structure policy and development, engineering structure at Airbus, will be joined on the dais by

• Dave Dickson, tooling technical development leader at Boeing Commercial Airplanes (topic to be announced).
• Carmelo Lo Faro, VP of technology at Cytec Engineered Materials (topic to be announced).
• Sam Sasaki, director of ACM technology at Mitsubishi Rayon Corp. (topic to be announced).
• James Colgrove, senior engineer at Trek Bicycle Corp.; and Adam Gans, director of product development for hockey sticks at Bauer (topic to be announced).
• Kevin Wolf, assistant secretary of commerce for Export Administration Bureau of Industry and Security (topic to be announced).
• Dan Ott, director, business development at Web Industries Inc., who will discuss the use of slit tape prepregs.

In addition, there will be two optional preconference events on Dec. 5. The morning workshop, “High-Strength Lightweight Materials: DoE EERE Opportunities in Carbon Fiber,” will be led by Dr. Ned Stetson, Hydrogen Storage team leader for the U.S. Department of Energy’s Fuel Cell Technologies Program, with others to be determined from the Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy. The afternoon seminar, “2011 Global Market Opportunities for Carbon Fibers: An Industry Evolving into High-Volume Processing,” will be presented by Anthony (Tony) Roberts, AJR Consultant LLC; David Service, Bluestar Fibres Co. Ltd.; and Chris Red, Composites Forecasts and Consulting LLC. The three will provide a comprehensive outlook and 10-year forecasts for the carbon fiber supply chain. 

For more information, visit www.compositesworld.com/conferences or call (207) 221-6602. I hope to see you this fall at one of our events.