AFS 2007 Annual Conference & Exposition

March 26-30, 2007
Orlando, FL

The American Filtration and Separation Society (AFS) celebrated its’ 20th Anniversary with an outstanding annual conference and exhibition at the Orange County Convention Center in sunny Orlando, Florida. The conference and exhibition was held March 26th through March 30th.  The event was co-located with the Water Quality Association Aquatech 2007.

As part of the celebration, the Society had a special Founder’s Day Luncheon that included a poster display of the 1988 Conference Proceedings. A “Walk of Fame” of industry leaders from 20 years ago. Attendees had a chance to view papers and presentations and old photos from the first AFS conference.

At the Founder’s Luncheon, Dr. Frank Tiller was remembered in talks by Dr. Wenping Li and Dr. Wu Chen. Founders that attended the lunch included; Lew Osterhoudt, Ed Gregor, Len Ortino, Scott Yaeger, and Ernie Mayer. Greatly missed at the occasion was Wells Shoemaker. Unable to attend the festivities for health reasons, the “Shoe” was present as the Founders traded stories about the early days of AFS.

The Technical Conference was a showcase of cutting edge technology and research. The AFS Dixie Chapter organized three popular technical sessions on Homeland Security. These sessions brought some new and interesting technology that has never been presented at an AFS conference.

Sessions on Leading Edge Technology provided attendees an enriched educational experience. With over 100 technical presentations there was an abundance of knowledge shared.

The conference opened with two interesting plenary presentations. Mr. Wang Yanxi, from the China Nonwovens Technology Association (CNTA), spoke on the Chinese market in filtration and separation products and on industrial cooperation between China and the US in this field.

J. Patrick Laflin was the second plenary speaker. Mr. Laflin is a former FBI agent and is a current consultant to the FBI. He spoke on the FBI Domain program, which is a program that works with US industry to help curtail industrial espionage.

The Tuesday Award lunch is always a highlight of the AFS conference. At this lunch AFS recognizes outstanding individuals in the field of filtration and separations and individuals that have donated much of their time to as volunteers in service to the AFS.

Lively discussion filled the conference hallway as students answered questions at the Student poster competition on Tuesday afternoon. Scholarships where presented to the top student poster presentations. At the conclusion of the poster competition the discussion continued at the evening networking reception.

In addition to the technical papers and outstanding plenary and keynote addresses, this year’s conference offered an outstanding co-located Exhibition. AFS had a pavilion area for filtration and separation companies within the larger WQA Aquatech 2007 Exhibition. Close to 5,000 individuals attended the exhibition.

Within the AFS Pavilion, AFS presented mini-seminars on filtration and separation topics. This educational opportunity introduced many Exhibit attendees to the educational aspects of AFS and attracted many Exhibit attendees into the AFS Pavilion. This was an outstanding opportunity for the AFS exhibitors to meet new potential customers and for conference attendees to view solutions offered by AFS exhibit companies.

The AFS Annual Conference is the leading technical forum for providing technological issues and information pertinent to the needs of the filtration and separation industry. Held only once a year, dozens of technical papers are presented providing filtration and separation professionals unique inside access to research and findings.

The information generated at this conference is critical to all those interested in improving filtration and separation systems to better serve their industry and community. It is through the integration of viewpoints and needs of all stakeholders in the filtration and separation industry that solutions for the real world are found.

Proceedings from the 2007 Annual Conference can be purchased by contacting the AFS office, 612-861-1277.

Next year’s annual conference will be located in Valley Forge, Pennsylvania, close to Philadelphia. It will be held the week of May 19-22, 2008. Save those dates. The call for papers is already available. If you are interested in exhibiting a tabletop contact the AFS office.

2007 Conference Sponsors