WHO SHOULD ATTEND: If you are involved in the global plastics industry and interested in the important West Coast market, you should attend Plastics Encounter Los Angeles trade show and conference. The three-day event will attract attendees from a broad range of end-user markets, primarily production and manufacturing professionals and design engineers, with the authority to recommend, specify and approve purchases of plastics materials, equipment and technology.

All the plastics processes will be represented on a show floor that features significant new networking opportunities. It will be a great place to do business.

The Plastics Encounter Los Angeles conference will tackle critical national plastics issues and regional business topics head on. Beginning at 9 a.m. each day, the morning conference sessions will feature more than two dozen executive speakers from such companies as Flextronics International, Toyota, i2 Technologies, Summa Industries, Trend Technologies, Scotts Co., Utility Resource Management Group and Textron.

Highlights:

• CEO-level panel on mergers, acquisitions and strategic planning
• Emerging technologies, emphasizing new controls and processes
• Contract manufacturing trends by Flextronics' Paul Santina
• Industry issues, from economics to ergonomics
• Recycling challenges, with Pierre Ferrari, head of Global Green’s Businesses & Environmentalists Allied for Recycling, and APC's Roger Bernstein
• How to manage your way through the energy crisis
• E-business sessions on online design collaboration and supply-chain management, plus keynote address from Toyota's USA's Gerald Braga @
• Training seminars (intensive 2-day simulation training courses from Paulson Training Programs Inc. for shop-floor injection molding personnel and from Compuplast International Inc. for all types of extrusion machinery operators.