My 15 Year Run (and Counting!) with ALAW

Top 10 Conference Memories

Events come and go, but who could have predicted ALAW – originally called the Automotive Laser Applications Workshop but now referred to as Advanced Laser Applications Workshop to reflect the more widespread use of lasers – would still be strong 24 years from its first offering?! Here are a few milestones and notables for me since 2002:

• My very first meeting with my boss at the University of Michigan (U-M) in May 2002 when he said, “I don’t know what to do with the ALAW event…figure it out.”
• Meeting ALAW’s founder, Frank DiPietro, for the first time. He lit up the room like a laser! I thought, ‘Yep I’m sold – let’s keep the ALAW fires burning.’
• Attendance hanging in there over the years. Some ups and downs. A high of 200+ and some lows just under a 100. Always a full agenda of speakers though, never less than 20 top-notch presentations.
• Annually Frank would attend the U-M’s and then CAR’s (Center for Automotive Research) Management Briefing Seminars in Traverse City, a ‘who’s who’ gathering of up to 1,500 executives and intelligentsia from the automotive world. Frank would get so excited talking laser welding that the recipient may get a gentle belly poke as he made his case. (Yes I did get a few of those belly pokes!)
• Frank transitioning out of the event, U-M steps aside and the new owners, FMA and the International Society for Laser Application and Safety (LIA), are on the scene in 2007.
• Fraunhofer, USA and TRUMPF Laser Technology Center have been an integral part of ALAW’s history, as long-time open house sponsors showing off the latest laser technologies each year with excellent refreshments and German feasts.
• The importance of those early ALAW committees stepping up to provide the leadership – too many to thank here! You know who you are!

• Throughout it all, always marveling at the European enthusiasm for laser welding car bodies and components. So many great case studies over the years influencing the North American market.
• Partnering with the Great Designs in Steel conference every year since 2013 to offer ALAW Laser Welding tutorials to their gathered attendance. Thank you Deanna Lorinz and the Steel Market Development Institute!
• Fast forward to now: FMA continues to keep ALAW going strong under the watchful eye of FMA’s Jen Christian and a hard-working ALAW Conference Committee supported by both automotive companies and equipment suppliers and industry researchers.

I am looking forward to seeing many of our friends and making new friends at ALAW 2017! We have so many great things in store. See you June 5-7 everyone.

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