The Adhesive and Sealant Council (ASC) Spring Convention and Expo will take place April 18-20 at the Hilton New Orleans Riverside. The three-day event will include concurrent technical sessions focusing on business development and market trends, government relations issues, and advanced technology, as well as an Expo.

Exhibition and Networking

On Monday, April 18, the ASC Gives Back volunteer program will provide delegates an opportunity to network before the Welcome Reception, which takes place in the evening.

In addition, the Expo, scheduled for 3:30-7 p.m. on Tuesday, April 19, will provide for networking and meetings. More than 70 exhibitors are expected, highlighting their newest innovations and products.

“On your own” time slots have also been scheduled into the program, allowing attendees to connect face to face during the convention. 

The Wednesday Closing Reception will provide a chance for final conversations, socializing and follow-up meetings.

Convention Overview

The convention offers lectures and panels in simultaneous tracks over the course of the event. Topics will focus on business development and market trends, government relations issues, and advanced technology.

A hot-melt short course will be presented on Monday, April 18, and Tuesday, April 19. This course will feature more than a dozen expert speakers covering formulation strategies based on application and performance requirements for a variety of hot-melt adhesive markets. Participants will learn how plasticizers, tackifiers and waxes are used to enhance base polymers for optimized processing and properties, and how to evaluate the mechanical and rheological behavior of hot melts and the resulting bonded assemblies. The short course is available to registrants only.

Keynote Speakers

Four keynote addresses will be given over the course of the event.

Ken Mayland, President, ClearView Economics LLC

At the Tuesday morning opening general session breakfast, Ken Mayland, Ph.D., president of ClearView Economics LLC, will present “An Election Year Economic Update and Policy Possibilities for 2017 and Beyond.” According to Mayland, while it is still growing, the U.S. economy continues to disappoint.  He will address questions including: What are the economy’s current pluses and minuses? In particular, why has the factory sector gone flat (with some manufacturing industries showing substantial retreats)? Once these factors are understood, how will they play out in 2016? This year is special because it is a presidential election year; what are the interplays between the politics and the economics? With U.S. business at a policy crossroads, what are the likely policy directions and economic results for 2017 and beyond?

Mayland previously served as chief economist for two major financial institutions. He graduated with degrees in economics from MIT and the University of Pennsylvania. He has spent more than 40 years studying the business cycle and providing economic analyses to a variety of constituencies. In addition, Mayland has been widely quoted by the media, and has won numerous prestigious awards for forecasting accuracy.

Suzanne Shelton, CEO, Shelton Group

As the Wednesday general session breakfast keynote, Suzanne Shelton, CEO of Shelton Group, will present “Green is Now Mainstream—What Does That Mean For You?” Some 69% of Americans now say they consider a company’s environmental reputation when they make purchasing decisions, and a whopping 82% of business decision makers say sustainability is important in their corporate decision making (and 67% of them consider it in product purchasing). As you might expect, “chemical content” is in the cross-hairs. Consumers and business decision makers alike are increasingly concerned about chemicals, even if they might not know exactly what to be concerned about. Shelton will share recent insights from her firm’s ongoing polling of the market on sustainability opinions and behaviors, and dig into why the public is concerned about chemicals—and what you can do to address it.

Shelton started Shelton Group in 1991 as a generalist marketing and advertising agency, working on local accounts in the Knoxville, Tenn., area. Today, Shelton Group is a nationally recognized, energy- and environment-focused marketing communications firm with some of the biggest players in that space as clients.

William Landuyt, Energy Advisor, ExxonMobil Corp.

Wednesday general session lunch keynote William Landuyt, Ph.D., energy advisor at ExxonMobil Corp., will present “Outlook for Energy: A View to 2040.” The outlook for energy presents ExxonMobil’s long-term global view of energy demand and supply, and its findings help guide the company’s long-term investments. The outlook helps promote a better understanding of the issues shaping the world’s energy future.

William Landuyt, is an energy advisor within the Corporate Strategic Planning department at ExxonMobil Corp. He earned a bachelor’s degree in physics and math from the University of Colorado at Boulder, and a Ph.D. in geology and geophysics from Yale University. Before joining ExxonMobil, he was a Green Scholar at Scripps Institution of Oceanography. Landuyt has held multiple positions at ExxonMobil, including a geoscientist in the Production and Exploration companies, and a research dcientist focused on global climate change at ExxonMobil Research and Engineering.  His current work focuses on projecting energy demand in the Americas and Africa in support of ExxonMobil’s energy outlook.

Thomas Blaige, Chairman and CEO, Blaige & Co.

The Wednesday closing keynote, “Lead, Follow, or Get out of the Way: Global Consolidation in the Adhesive & Sealant Sector,” will be presented by Thomas Blaige, chairman and CEO, Blaige & Co. Using proprietary research since 2001, Blaige will discuss the impact of global consolidation on the adhesives and sealants industry. As discussed in Blaige & Co.’s comprehensive “Fifteen Year Plastics and Packaging M&A Consolidation Study,” more than half of 2001’s top 50 plastics and packaging companies have undergone a change of ownership or have been eliminated. Blaige will provide summary analysis from the study and will cover valuable strategies to help companies in the adhesives and sealants market understand and “win” in today’s mergers and acquisitions market.

Blaige established Blaige & Co., an international investment banking firm dedicated to the plastics, packaging and chemicals industries. He has more than 30 years of transaction experience, having completed over 200 transactions and visited over 200 plastics, packaging, and chemicals operations worldwide. His transactions experience includes strategic combinations with large global consolidators; the sale, acquisition and recapitalization of family owned companies and corporate divisions; corporate divestiture and spin-off transactions; and international and a middle market M&A unit of a Wall Street investment bank.

He earned a master of management degree with distinction from the Kellogg Graduate School of Management at Northwestern University, and a bachelor of business administration degree from Loyola University of Chicago.