Mike Levans Chief Editor |
One thing that CleanRooms never wants to be accused of is complacency. That's why you see a member of the Clean Rooms staff at just about every conference and show that touches contamination-control issues and technology around the world.
With that fear of “contentment” firmly engrained in everyone involved in this magazine, myself included, our writers and conference organizers are continuously asking the market about its evolving needs and how we can maintain our lofty status as the number one contamination-control resource.
The market has responded and so have we.
At last year's CleanRooms East in Boston we gleaned several suggestions from our conference committee concerning the direction and mission of our various educational sessions. What we found was that cleanroom end-user companies tend to utilize our four conferences and shows (East, West, Europe and Asia) as their training ground in lieu of costly in-house programs. That's great news for our group; however, the committee felt that attendees needed a way to validate their conference experience.
Accreditation, the committee said, would add the ultimate stamp of approval to our sessions, allowing attendees to accumulate continuing education units (CEUs) and neatly round off our list of diverse conference offerings.
Over the past eights months, conference development coordinator Meg Villeneuve has worked along side the International Association for Continuing Education and Training (IACET), a non-profit organization that certifies educational providers that meet strict continuing educational guidelines, to make sure that our accreditation application process was a smooth one.
She met with tremendous success.
We're proud to announce that, as of the recently concluded CleanRooms East 2002 in Baltimore, CleanRooms conferences are now accredited and attendees have already started working toward CEUs. As a matter of fact, more than 70 percent of our conference attendees in Baltimore are now working toward CleanRooms CEUs-a great start considering we received approval two weeks before the show. For information on how you can get you or your staff started, please contact Meg at [email protected].
Another bit of news buzzing around the show floor in Baltimore was our announcement signaling the launch of CleanRooms China in Shanghai, August 5-6. The two-day event, scheduled at the tail-end of CleanRooms Asia in Singapore, July 30-August 1, will feature table-top exhibits and two days of cleanroom conference programming in coordination with the U.S. Commerce Department and the China Contamination Control Society.
On the heels of China's admission to the WTO, trade barriers are lifting and chances are you're considering setting up shop if you haven't done so already.
We've listened to the market and have been able to rise up to meet its needs. Now, it's your turn to battle complacency and come along for the ride.