Southern Metal Finishing Conference 2006 was a hit!

[color="DarkSlateBlue"]As always, the 2006 Southern Metal Finishing Conference was a terrific mix of education, fellowship and tradition combined into 3 short days with no rest for the weary.  It is always exciting to see the camaraderie between old friends and to watch new friendships develop.  Incredible networking opportunities abound for those who seek them and many new acquaintances were made. 

The 1st Annual Pub Crawl and Scavenger Hunt brought out everyone’s silly side in addition to their competitive streaks. This year’s winners were Steve Raynor, Mike Peluso and Sid Puckett from DuBois and Rick Franclemont of CDI and John Forrey from Pro-tech Steve Raynor and Sid Puckett were along for one amazing race with Mike Peluso in hot pursuit of adding the winning prize to his ever growing collection of electronics.  Rick Franclemont was hands down the most hard core crawler – hell bent on winning along with John Forrey who never missed an opportunity to stage a hilarious photo shoot.  Many thanks to Greg Valero of Metal Finishing Magazine for providing I-pods to each member of the winning team. 

A picture of your team in a water fountain was worth 100 points.
Ivan, Jim, Raquel and Rob scored with this one.

The food was fantastic at Coast.  I think everyone enjoyed at least one meal there – some of us even two or three.  Mistral is always the most charming place to discover a new favorite wine or just polish up on your French.  The roof top bar with its beautiful view of the bridge was the most welcoming gathering spot for everyone to meet up, either for a quick drink after dinner or for several into the wee hours of the night.

Our two day Powder Coating course had a record 50 attendees, thanks to the hard work of Travis Stirewalt of Tiger Drylac.  While Steve Gilbert the area’s newest Certified AESF instructor, taught the grueling two day Innovative Pollution Prevention Course to a diverse group of scholars such as Jim Romine of Moen Faucets, whole will hopefully use this course and one at Sur-Fin 06 to attain his Master Surface Finisher designation.

Jerry Beck and Bernie Greenburg were excellent speakers, each with a dynamic presentation that correlated well on the issues in regarding the survival and growth of our industry in this new world economy.  Both drove home the message that survival is not enough and innovation is the key to our future.

SMF is blessed with really great attendees each year who join us in Charleston to learn something new and have fun while doing it.  Each year we learn how to improve upon the year before and it is our hope to continue bringing everyone together each year for new and exciting ways to educate ourselves and enjoy a good time.

Thanks to all of those who support our endeavors in effort to see Metal Finishing continue to thrive in the Southeast.
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