Pressrelease.pdf	Society of Plastics Engineers European Member Bureau Bistkapellei 44 ~ B - 2180 Antwerp ~ Belgium Tel. +32 3 541 77 55 ~ Fax +32 3 541 84 25 E-mail: spe.europe@skynet.be www.e-t-d.org

European Thermoforming Conference in Italy
25th to 27th March 2004

Thermoforming for Profit: “From Concept to Excellence”

From 25 – 27 March more than 280 delegates, including many of the key players within the European Thermoforming industry, met in Viareggio, Italy at the 4th European Thermoforming Conference 2004 designed and run by SPE – European Thermoforming Division. Compared to the last conference in Zurich 2002, the organizers registered about 30% more delegates.

With attendees from 22 countries worldwide, even USA and Canada were well represented, this has been truly an International event which in particular attracted a significant proportion of delegates from Italy and the rest of Southern Europe.

In a competent and comprehensive way the presentations covered the theme of the conference “Thermoforming for Profit: From Concept to Excellence”.

Following this theme, the General Session started with the topic “Total Quality Management” highlighted market trends in European Thermoforming with a special reference to the situation in Italy and explored the point of view of an OEM regarding the commercial and technical demands on thermoformers.

A thin gauge session and a parallel thick gauge session offered the audience informed insights into new developments, materials and market opportunities that exist.
Three parallel workshops gave room for comprehensive discussions around the themes “A Passionate Belief in Excellence (Are we Managing Properly?)”, “Market Development in Thermoforming” or “The Thermoforming Factory of the Future: Man or Machine?”

A social highlight of the conference has been the tribute to the “Spirit of Thermoforming” represented by Manfred Jacob, Jacob Kunststofftechnik, Germany for his vision to bring people together to capture this “Spirit”.
Furthermore for his technical and teaching contributions, the E.T.D. honored Jim Throne, Sherwood Technologies, USA, who delivered the perfect final speech at the conference.We were also delighted to welcome the President of the S.P.E, Donna Davis who commented favourably on the content and quality of the event.

This event was a major success and demonstrated E.T.D.’s ability to pull together many of the engineers and managers of the European thermoforming industry as guest speakers to ensure lively debates and unrivalled networking opportunities.

The details of the 5th E.T.D. Conference will be announced shortly. The date will be March 2006, venue will be decided. However, based on the success of this and previous conferences and simultaneous translation also for the next event, it is recommended to make a note in your diaries now.

Information about the conference may be obtaied from:

conference photos