SPE extends nomination deadline for global parts competition.
Press Release Summary:
Nomination deadline has been extended for second annual Plastics for Life™ global parts competition. Because eligible parts must previously have won a category or a competition at an SPE TOPCON topical conference or Minicon mini-conference held during last 12 months, extending deadline from January 30 to February 13, 2015 allows teams of winning parts from SPE conferences that fall early in 2015 to enter this year's competition rather than wait until 2016.
Original Press Release:
SPE® Extends Nomination Deadline for 2nd-Annual Plastics for Life(TM) Global Parts Competition
BETHEL, CONN. – The nomination deadline has been extended by the Society of Plastics Engineers (SPE®) for the group's second-annual Plastics for Life™ global parts competition.
Because eligible parts must previously have won a category or a competition at an SPE TOPCON (topical conference) or Minicon (mini-conference) held during the last 12 months, extending the deadline from January 30 to February 13, 2015 allows teams of winning parts from SPE conferences that fall early in 2015 to enter this year's competition rather than wait until 2016.
Another change, requested by judges, is that nominations will be previewed online in February, but final balloting will take place on Monday, March 23, 2015 after judges have the opportunity to see and touch physical parts during a walkthrough on the first day of SPE's Annual Technical Conference (ANTEC® 2015), the world's largest plastics technical conference held in Orlando, Fla. from March 23-25, 2015.
"As our competition enters its second year, interest is building and we've been asked to make a few rule changes that would enable us to pick up extra nominations," explains Jon Ratzlaff, technical services manager, Chevron Phillips Chemical Co., who created the parts competition during his term as 2013-2014 SPE president. "Since one of our goals for this competition is to highlight the incredible versatility of plastic materials in numerous markets and show how plastics truly enhance life on this planet, there was no question that we needed to be flexible. Hopefully the teams that are already hard at work on their forms will appreciate that they just got a two-week extension."
Because judging will run later, another change that was made is that winners will be announced at a press conference on Wednesday, March 25 instead of Monday, March 23 as originally planned. However, a real benefit to this change is that it will extend balloting for the People's Choice award category, which allows participation from any ANTEC attendee rather than solely the Blue-Ribbon judging panel made up of past SPE presidents, emeritus members, and members of the media. The judging panel will pick winners in four other feature-based categories — Protecting Life (preservation, safety, containment, protection); Quality of Life (mobility, communication, luxury/comfort, recreation, entertainment); Improving Life (education, energy, opportunity, health); and Sustaining Life (environmental, conservation, sustainability, recycling, reduction) — as well as a Grand Award winner selected from among the top vote getter in each of the other four categories. Nomination forms and rules can be found at http://www.4spe.org/plasticsforlife.
SPE’s Annual Technical Conference (ANTEC®) is the largest, most-respected, and well-known technical conference in the plastics industry globally. For over 70 years, ANTEC has successfully expanded from U.S. into Europe, India, and the Middle East with further expansion to global locations in 2015 and beyond. Each event features technical and business presentations on new and evolving technologies, panel discussions, as well as tutorial sessions. Networking events and student functions provide attendees with ample networking opportunities with experts from the largest industry segments. The 2015 conference will be held in conjunction with the National Plastics Exposition (NPE® 2015) produced by the Society of the Plastics Industry (SPI®) in Orlando, Fla. from March 23-27, 2015. Learn more at http://www.ANTEC.ws.
The mission of the Society of Plastics Engineers is to promote scientific and engineering knowledge relating to plastics worldwide and to educate industry, academia, and the public about these advances. SPE is active in educating, promoting, recognizing, and communicating technical accomplishments for all phases of plastics and plastic based-composite developments in the global transportation industry. Topic areas include applications, materials, processing, equipment, tooling, design, and development. Learn more at http://www.4spe.org/.
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