AIMCAL Saddles Up in Texas

Published: March 27, 2007, By By Yolanda Simonsis Associate Publisher/Editor

INDUSTRY NEWS

AUSTIN, TX—Members of the Assn. of Industrial Metallizers, Coaters & Laminators (AIMCAL) hitched their horses to a Texas hoedown-style venue at the annual winter meeting held March 14–18 at Hyatt Lost Pines Resort. Included at the opening reception were live armadillo races (my armadillo was fascinated with Leo Nadolske), jail breaking (took me only 5 seconds), cow pie shuffleboard (I wasn’t the worst), and frisbee tossing (representing something even less appetizing than cow pies).

The next few days took a more back-to-business approach with keynote speaker Chris Wallace of Fox News fame sharing professional experiences never captured on tape, including the now infamous Bill Clinton interview. He also gave his opinion on whether or not President George W. Bush had become a lame duck, the “insane” early obsession with the 2008 elections, the Iraq strategy, and Democratic and Republican presidential hopefuls.

Dr. Tom Steiner followed, describing himself as a corporate “EnterTRAINer,” and addressed the constancy of change. In today’s fast-paced corporate environment, he said, companies and the people who lead them will be successful only if they can both react and anticipate change with speed and agility. Maintaining a sense of humor may help make the journey fun, he added.

Dr. William Llewelyn of AWA Alexander Watson Assoc. provided valuable marketing statistics on worldwide labeling and product decoration, including consumption and anticipated demand; Simon King of PCI Films Consulting Ltd. presented the global outlook for the high-performance plastic film industry (also see PFFC, January ’07, p30), including insight on the overall recent trends concerning China and India; Bill Balliette of Nova Centrix addressed opportunities in printed electronics; and Bill Stratton of Adhesives Research shared his first-hand experience with the importance of disaster planning and management in the event of a fire.

The concluding speaker, and perhaps the most anticipated, was economist Dr. Robert Fry of DuPont. He said growth slowed in 2006 and projected how 2007 will shape up. The most important news here is that Fry does not anticipate a true recession; however, the US is in the middle of a mid-cycle slowdown. He forecasts that growth will remain below trend in 2007, but he expects improvement in 2008.