Conferences Asia Pacific Coatings Show 2006 Impresses All

Conferences Asia Pacific Coatings Show 2006 Impresses All

The Asia Pacific Coatings Show 2006, held at the Kuala Lumpur Convention Centre in Malaysia from 20th to 22nd June, was a huge success with a record number of visitors attending the show from 50 different countries.

The Asia Pacific Coatings Show 2006 Exhibition and Conference was opened by Dato' Sayed Saleh, and Mr Ian Faux, Vice President of The Coatings Group, dmg world media (uk) ltd.

Asia Pacific Coatings Show was packed full of features to educate and entertain, and highlights included the conference, exhibitor business presentations and the 6th APCS Awards ceremony.

Free to attend, the Exhibitor Business Presentations, held within the hall,were well received with high attendance reported by speakers throughout. TheAsia Pacific Coatings Conference, organised by CoRI (Coatings Research Institute) and The Coatings Group ran alongside the show for the first day and a half. It was fully subscribed with standing room only available when registration closed. Delegates enjoyed a packed programme of technical papers with the theme “New advances in organic coatings technology & science”.

The 6th APCS Awards were held at the Mandarin Oriental Hotel with some expected and surprise winners within the six categories. The winners were: Most Innovative Product Award – Bühler, Environmental Award –Hoffman Mineral, Best Conference Paper Award – Peter Schertenleib of Netzsch-Feinmahltechnich GmbH for his paper “The Ψ-MIXTM – A new Dispersion Process” Best Marketing Campaign Award – Cognis, Best Purpose-Built Stand Award – Bayer Material Science and Best Shell Scheme Stand Award – Arch Chemicals.

In response to exhibitor and visitor feedback from previous shows, the Asia Pacific Coatings Show will now alternate between two venues, instead of three. Next year's show will be held in Bangkok, Thailand (6-8 June) and in 2008 the event will return to Kuala Lumpur on 24- 26 June. APCS will no longer be held in Singapore. This will resolve the issue of holding the show in such nearby cities(Kuala Lumpur and Singapore.)

Ian Faux, Coatings Group Vice President said, “We see the new arrangement as allowing for the growth of APCS, as Bangkok has a strong international market and Kuala Lumpur is in the heart of Asia.”

Stand sales for the Asia Pacific Coatings Show 2007 in Bangkok are already beyond target at over 35% capacity booked, demonstrating exhibitors' early commitment to the next show, the region and the industry.

Kerstin Ahne of Eckart enthused about the show, “The exhibition went especially well for us as we had visits from a variety of different regions which are of high value to our business. We also thought that the design of the exhibition hall was snazzy and it is in our plans to come back next year.”

Mr Ian Faux expressed his delight at the overall success of the show: “The record attendance and strong representation of all the major players at the Asia Pacific Coatings Show reaffirms the importance of the ASEAN region to the future of the global coatings industry. The Asia Pacific Coatings Show is going from strength to strength and with confident economic growth and expanding paint production throughout the region, I believe this event will continue to reflect the industry's interest and activity in the area.