Dec 17 2008
NPE, until now best known as the Western Hemisphere's largest international plastics trade show, will be this and much more in 2009, it was announced today by The Society of the Plastics Industry, Inc. (SPI), producer of the triennial event. NPE2009 takes place June 22-26, 2009, at Chicago's McCormick Place.
"For 2009, SPI has transformed NPE into a vast, multifaceted international convocation that will address the business and technical interests of the entire range of industry professionals," said Gene Sanders, SPI's vice president of trade shows. "NPE2009 will be comprised of eight full-scale SPI- and partner-sponsored expositions and conferences, including four events not previously disclosed."
The previously announced events slated to take place at McCormick Place during NPE2009 week include the 26th edition of the NPE exposition, with 2,000 exhibiting companies; the Society of Plastics Engineers' ANTEC 2009 technical conference, with more than 650 original, peer-reviewed presentations; SPI's "The Business of Plastics" educational program; and the MoldMaking Expo conference and exposition, produced by Gardner Publications, Inc.
Now SPI has reached agreements with partner organizations that will add the following four events to show week:
- PET Strategies Plus conference, produced by Packaging Strategies and focusing on business strategy, issues, and technologies involving packaging applications of PET. (www.packstrat.com)
- Time Compression conference and exposition, produced by Gardner Publications, Inc. and focusing on technologies for rapid product design and development. This will be the inaugural edition of the event.
- Latin American Plastics conference, produced by B2B Portales, Inc.'s Tecnología del Plástico and Conversión magazines and conducted entirely in Spanish. The full title of the event is "Trends, Opportunities, and Technologies to Improve the Competitiveness of the Latin American Plastics Industry." (https://www.plastico.com/es)
- Coatings for Plastics conference, produced by the Federation of Societies for Coatings Technology (FSCT) for professionals who specify and use coatings on plastics, as well as coating manufacturers and raw material suppliers.
"There has never been anything like this multiplicity of conferences and expositions at a plastics event," said Sanders. He noted that by clicking the "Register" button at www.npe.org, prospective NPE visitors encounter a number of multi-event package plans and discounts.
All four recently added events will take place in the new West Building, along with the entire ANTEC, MoldMaking Expo, and "The Business of Plastics" conference, plus a portion of the NPE2009 exhibits. The facility includes ample exhibit space and an exceptionally large adjacent meeting area that can accommodate 61 concurrent conference sessions. SPI has designated the West Building as "Technology Central." The building will also accommodate a number of innovative programs developed by SPI, including the Emerging Technologies Pavilion and other multi-exhibitor specialty pavilions, the first International Plastics Design Competition, and a Technology Theater where exhibitors can make presentations or demonstrations.