FEATURE

The Adhesive and Sealant Council's Annual Convention and Expo is taking place April 17 to April 19 in New Orleans.

The Adhesive and Sealant Council's (ASC) 2023 Annual Convention & Expo — the largest annual gathering of professionals in the adhesive and sealant industry — is taking place April 17 to April 19 at the Hyatt Regency New Orleans. Building on the momentum of the World Adhesive Conference in Chicago in 2022, the ASC's 2023 Convention & Expo is a must-attend event for all those involved in the industry.

The three-day event will offer concurrent technical educational sessions featuring over 50 speakers and covering a wide variety of topics. Session topics include recycling technologies, feedstocks, solutions for manufacturing challenges, navigating sustainability requirements, digitalization, building and construction technologies, the supply chain, hot melts in packaging, regulatory updates, and new technologies.

Among the education tracks offered on Tuesday morning is a sustainability panel moderated by Tad Radzinski, president of Sustainable Solutions Corp. The panel will include Jim Holbery, CEO-president of Nvirovate Materials; Lisa Madenjian, principle scientist at Dow; Bill Chen, principal scientist at Henkel Corp.; and Gloriamar Gamez, senior sustainability manager at Henkel Corp. It will discuss soy PSA life cycle analysis, a roadmap for sustainable hot melts, compostable hot melts for personal hygiene, and sustainable operations and achieving net zero. A session on regulatory issues scheduled for Wednesday afternoon will include presentations on TSCA and PFAS chemical policy, state chemical regulatory policy in Ohio, extended producer responsibility, and FEICA’s regulatory priorities for 2023. The 2023 Innovation Award winners and two runners up will be featured in an educational session on Tuesday afternoon, where they will each give presentations. Bill Allmond, ASC president, will announce the recipients of the 2023 awards at the breakfast and awards presentation on Tuesday morning.

The conference will feature three keynote addresses. At the opening general session and keynote on Tuesday morning, Susan O’Malley, former president of Washington Sports and Entertainment, and the first female president of a professional sports franchise, will present “Seven Leadership & Life Lessons.” Dr. Michael Okoroafor, chief sustainability officer at McCormick & Co., will deliver an address on Wednesday morning at the general session breakfast and keynote. His presentation is titled “Driving the ESG Agenda to Future-Proof your Business in a Changing World.” Later on Wednesday, at the general session lunch and keynote, Dr. Malik Thompson, aerospace materials engineer, NASA Marshall Space Flight Center, Adhesives & Seals Materials, will speak on “Pot Life to Extraterrestrial Life: Bonding Applications for Deep Space.”

The ASC Expo and Reception will take place on Tuesday from 3:00 to 6:30 p.m. With over 90 exhibitors, the expo allows attendees an opportunity to become up-to-date on the latest innovation in the industry, as well as network with colleagues. It will also include a reception in the expo hall for additional networking time. After the expo, Ingevity is sponsoring buses that will take people from the hotel to the Bourbon Street area so they can enjoy the nightlife of New Orleans. The conference and expo will provide other networking opportunities for members to meet and mingle with their peers, including breakfasts on Tuesday and Wednesday, coffee and networking lounges in the mid-morning and afternoon on Tuesday and Wednesday, and a first-time attendee and new member reception on Monday evening followed by a NOLA Mardi Gras welcome reception for full conference attendees. The conference and expo will end with a Port Of New Orleans tour on Wednesday afternoon.

Those attending the conference will also have an opportunity to do some service while they are in New Orleans. Through the ASC Give Back Program Community Service Project, ASC members will work cleaning trails, removing invasive plants and perhaps planting native trees at the Bayou Sauvage Urban National Wildlife Refuge. Bill Allmond explained, “As we do every year, we are going to be doing our ASC Gives Back program on Monday for attendees to volunteer in the local New Orleans community to give back to the city of New Orleans. We are going to a local wildlife preserve and working with the preservationists to do some good work in the preserve. We may even see some alligators. Who knows?”