Gateways to a rich technical experience
Edward P. Salek, CAE, Executive Director | TLT Headquarters Report January 2012
Content from STLE conferences and meetings is now available online and free.
An incredible wealth of information—three years worth of technical program guides for STLE’s Annual Meetings and IJTCs—is available for free at www.stle.org.
JANUARY IS THE TIME OF YEAR WHEN THE STAFF AT OUR HEADQUARTERS OFFICE starts thinking about May. Ample piles of snow and nasty wind chills here in Chicago are not the only reason. We actually are looking ahead to May 6-10 in the vibrant Midwestern city of St. Louis, Mo., host to STLE’s 2012 Annual Meeting & Exhibition.
We hope that TLT readers also are marking the date now and watching their e-mail for the meeting’s Technical Program Guide and registration material which you should receive very soon. The guide provides complete information on the rich technical experience that awaits the more than 1,500 participants from around the world who are attending the meeting in St. Louis.
The technical program reflects the dedicated work of hundreds of volunteer paper solicitation chairs, education course instructors and company representatives exhibiting new products and services at the STLE trade show. Directing all this activity is the Annual Meeting Program Committee, chaired by Dr. Lewis Rosado of the Air Force Research Laboratory at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Dayton, Ohio.
To get a head start on reviewing partial program information, as well as on making hotel reservations and securing meeting registration, you can visit the 2012 Annual Meeting pages on
www.stle.org. You’ll discover that this year’s conference continues the STLE tradition of providing an immense amount of diverse technical content during one very condensed time period.
This brings me to good news about prior STLE annual meetings. It’s now possible to reference historical meeting content, also through
www.stle.org. Just move your cursor to the Events tab on the home page and click on the drop-down menu item marked Photos and Information from Past Events. You can view a digital copy of the Program Guide for the 2009, 2010 and 2011 STLE Annual Meetings.
These guides provide technical presentation abstracts as well as the names and affiliations of all paper presenters. You’ll also find that the names and contact information for all exhibitors is a great resource if you are seeking a new product, service or business partner in 2012. The site includes access to similar content in the Program Guides for the 2010 and 2011 International Joint Tribology Conferences.
The more than 1,500 abstracts are all searchable by topic or presenter name, which makes this new Web resource a valuable tool for the many STLE members who would like to locate a presentation or find a presenter from prior years. This type of search, which in the past took a considerable amount of time and effort, is now quick and easy.
It’s also worth noting that the online program guide archive is a great way to become familiar with meeting content if you’ve never attended an STLE meeting or have been away from the event for a few years. In addition to viewing abstracts and attendance lists, the guides acquaint you with such major aspects of the meeting as education courses, exhibits and networking events.
I’m looking forward to seeing you in a few months at the annual meeting and to another year of volunteers, members and staff in pursuit of the STLE mission:
“To advance the science of tribology and the practice of lubrication engineering in order to foster innovation, improve the performance of equipment and products, conserve resources and protect the environment.”
You can reach Certified Association Executive Ed Salek at esalek@stle.org.