Hello again from sunny and warm Arizona, what a great place to be in late October, this week is forecast to be sunny, in the low 90s with low humidity every day – great weather. Also the convention center is pretty good too.
Tuesday morning saw the start of the seminar and expo for real. The highpoint of Tuesday morning was the plenary session with a series of keynote speakers from around the world. They concentrated on setting out the big picture, which should place the technical stuff from the rest of the week in context. This session was in a huge hall, and while it’s difficult to say how many people were there, I would guess from the coffee lines at break it was over 500. At least it was Starbucks.
The Exhibition Hall was officially opened to all delegated at lunchtime by Bob Rose of the US Fuel Cell Council (USFCC). It a slightly strange turn of events, all the exhibitors were inside the hall, behind closed doors, while the ceremony took place outside. I wonder what they said about us :)
Flexitallic have joined the USFCC so I had the opportunity to participate in one of their working group meetings on Solid Oxide Fuel Cells, which was an interesting experience.
The afternoon was when the real stuff started though - the concurrent technical sessions. There were several sessions on different technologies running in parallel; I spent my time in the SOFC session. Tuesday afternoon was mainly presentations from those involved in the SECA/DOE program. Clearly progress is being made; several speakers stressed efficiency improvements and cost reductions, even from the conference last year. I’d say there were 200-300 people in attendance for the main papers in this session, which is pretty impressive.
After the papers most people seemed to head for the free food in the exhibition halls (more long lines – especially the one where you could redeem your free beer coupons, but worth it for the 8th Street Ale, brewed in locally Tucson AZ. Another well thought out incentive to encourage people into the exhibit hall. It’s a long day on the booth (as Bruce can attest to) but we got some significant new contacts, and managed to meet up with some people we already knew.
Tomorrow is another SOFC session with lots of papers from European lab. It will be interesting to compare the approaches of the labs in the US and EU. Then there’s more Expo time in the booth for Bruce and myself.
Check out tomorrow’s blog for updates on Wednesday’s papers and events.
Cheers
Steve
Tuesday morning saw the start of the seminar and expo for real. The highpoint of Tuesday morning was the plenary session with a series of keynote speakers from around the world. They concentrated on setting out the big picture, which should place the technical stuff from the rest of the week in context. This session was in a huge hall, and while it’s difficult to say how many people were there, I would guess from the coffee lines at break it was over 500. At least it was Starbucks.
The Exhibition Hall was officially opened to all delegated at lunchtime by Bob Rose of the US Fuel Cell Council (USFCC). It a slightly strange turn of events, all the exhibitors were inside the hall, behind closed doors, while the ceremony took place outside. I wonder what they said about us :)
Flexitallic have joined the USFCC so I had the opportunity to participate in one of their working group meetings on Solid Oxide Fuel Cells, which was an interesting experience.
The afternoon was when the real stuff started though - the concurrent technical sessions. There were several sessions on different technologies running in parallel; I spent my time in the SOFC session. Tuesday afternoon was mainly presentations from those involved in the SECA/DOE program. Clearly progress is being made; several speakers stressed efficiency improvements and cost reductions, even from the conference last year. I’d say there were 200-300 people in attendance for the main papers in this session, which is pretty impressive.
After the papers most people seemed to head for the free food in the exhibition halls (more long lines – especially the one where you could redeem your free beer coupons, but worth it for the 8th Street Ale, brewed in locally Tucson AZ. Another well thought out incentive to encourage people into the exhibit hall. It’s a long day on the booth (as Bruce can attest to) but we got some significant new contacts, and managed to meet up with some people we already knew.
Tomorrow is another SOFC session with lots of papers from European lab. It will be interesting to compare the approaches of the labs in the US and EU. Then there’s more Expo time in the booth for Bruce and myself.
Check out tomorrow’s blog for updates on Wednesday’s papers and events.
Cheers
Steve
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