LAS VEGAS - The Western Coatings Symposium (WCS) is taking place October 25-28, 2015, at the Paris Hotel in Las Vegas. Organizers of the symposium are seeking technical presentations and academic posters to be considered for the event.

Technical presentations focused on the newest innovations, and regional and global trends of the industry will be considered. The committee welcomes presentations for new chemical and coatings technologies; new market and product trends; leadership, management, sales and market, and M&A insights; and new supply chain, operations, IT, ERP, manufacturing, and environmental and regulatory developments. The WCS presentation session is a technical-focus event. Abstracts and presentation content should not be promotional or commercial in character.

Those interested should submit a 100-200 word abstract with no commercial product names, a presentation title, author and speaker name(s), a speaker biography (100 words maximum), company name, and speaker’s e-mail and phone number. The abstract should be in a Microsoft Word document. The deadline for submissions is April 6, 2015. Speakers will be notified of acceptance by April 20, 2015. Following acceptance, completed presentations must be submitted by July 17, 2015.

Prospective speakers should e-mail their submission or questions to papers@westerncoatings.org or call Larry Teachout at 714/545.7101, Ext 2691; Eunice Leung at 714/213.8674, or the WCS office at 714/974.4511 (e-mail westerncoatings@earthlink.net).

The WCS Academic Poster Session is designed to encourage university students to submit posters promoting new ideas and technologies based on preliminary or completed coatings or related materials research. All students presenting an accepted poster will receive $200 and are eligible for the three Academic Poster Session monetary awards. In addition to the three monetary awards, there are four speaker slots reserved for four students to present their findings to the attendees of the symposium. Each accepted academic poster will be provided with a display board to highlight the research project. Students will be required to be present in the exhibit hall during WCS exhibit hours for the purpose of discussing their projects with WCS attendees. Only one poster can be submitted by a given student with a maximum of two students per poster. A university can elect to set up an accepted academic poster without a student, but the university will not receive the $200 accepted poster prize or be eligible for the three academic poster competition awards.

Awards for the WCS Academic Poster Session are as follows:

• First Place:          $1,200
• Second Place      $600
• Third Place:         $300

To participate, submit a 100-200 word academic poster abstract by April 17, 2015, including title of paper, university name, author name(s), and contact information. Students will be notified of acceptance by May 22, 2015. Following acceptance, submissions must be completed by August 31, 2015.

Students should e-mail their abstract submission to Hal Harlan at hal@anametinc.com. Contact Harlan at 510/887.8811 with questions.