Inside ICI


64th Technical Conference and Equipment Expo Hosts 755 Attendees


By Joseph E. Fritz – Executive Director, Investment Casting Institute


ast month, the ICI hosted its 64th Technical Conference and Equipment Expo. The event was well attended with 755 guests from 254 companies, surpassing the record set in 2014 of 724 attendees. The ratio of supplier to foundry individual attendees was 2.6:1, and the ratio of supplier to foundry companies was 2.0:1. There were 574 attendees from 179


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Member companies, and 145 attendees from 75 non-member companies. Additionally, there were 36 attendees not affiliated with a supplier or a foundry, largely made up of customers, society professionals, guests and an Alumni Member. North American Members numbered


495, and 80 Associate (international) Members were in attendance. Of the 145 non-member companies, 128 were from North America. In total, there were 93 international (non-North American) delegates from 14 countries attending


6 ❘ November 2017 ®


the event. This year we adopted a new


approach to the structure of the Technical Conference. The opening ceremony, consisting of our annual awards/honors presentation and keynote speech, was open to all attendees, regardless of registration type. Additionally, papers on related topics were grouped, and questions were held for a discussion panel of those speakers. We also eliminated paper surveys


and went fully digital with door prizes awarded to survey participants on the basis of random drawings.


All


conference attendees who completed the daily speaker surveys were given access to presentation materials to augment the value of the event proceedings, and surprise drawings were held for door prizes at the start of the Tuesday and Wednesday sessions for those survey participants from the previous day. A special survey was conducted to


address customer supplier relationships and collect statistics on typical engineering tolerances. Four door prizes were awarded, winners being drawn from survey participants at the Tuesday evening reception. These prizes consisted of a $100 Visa gift card, a dual port USB portable charger, a watch and a Cross pen. A final drawing for a full 2018


65th Technical Conference and Expo pass was held for those completing the general event survey. This drawing was held on Friday, October 27th to afford attendees the opportunity to participate. The winner was Al Webb of Cera-Met. In general, survey participation was


up, most likely due to the door prizes, which added an element of fun to what would otherwise be a mundane task. Thanks to all who participated in these surveys, as the only way that we can improve is with your feedback.


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