The Roof Coatings Manufacturers Association (RCMA) hosted a successful International Roof Coatings Conference. The conference took place July 14-17, 2014 in Baltimore, Maryland. Conference attendance was up 15 percent over 2012’s inaugural IRCC, with 127 people in attendance representing 81 companies and organizations and 7 countries. Boasting thirteen speakers and ten national and international conference partners, the IRCC provided attendees with a tremendous volume of educational content and ample opportunities for networking.

RCMA hosted a welcome reception on Monday evening that kicked off the proceedings, with the conference programming beginning Tuesday morning. “RCMA is very pleased with the interest and strong registration rates for this conference,” noted John Ferararo, RCMA executive director, in his opening statement. “We hope to grow this conference even more in the years to come and we look forward to hearing feedback from conference attendees and the broader roof coatings industry to continue to improve on the success of this event.”

Conference moderator John Stubblefield, national product manager for Polyglass USA, kept conference attendees engaged with interesting anecdotes about each of the speakers and by moderating the lively question and answer sessions that followed each presentation. Attendees at the IRCC expressed their appreciation for the lineup of dynamic presentations that covered a wide breadth of topics and issues, delivered by key leaders in the roof coatings and building sciences community:

•           “Novel PUA Hybrid Chemistry for Elastomeric Roof Coatings”
Dr. Steven Jiguang Zhang, Dow Chemical Company

•           “Solvent Reduction Technology – What are the Rules?”
Dr. Michael Van De Mark, Missouri S&T Coatings Institute

•           “Overcoming Vapor Drive Issues in Cool Roofing”
Jason Smith, The Garland Company

•           “Advancing Installation of Reflective Roofing Systems through Community-Based Social Marketing and the Baltimore Energy Challenge”
Alice Kennedy, Baltimore Office of Sustainability

•           “The Building Envelope Emerging Technologies Portfolio in United States Department of Energy’s Building Technologies Office”
Dr. Karma Sawyer, United States Department of Energy

•           “Introducing the RoofPoint Energy and Carbon Calculator: Measuring the Energy and Environmental Contributions of Roofing Systems”
Dr. James Hoff, Center for Environmental Innovation in Roofing

•           “Energy Efficiency and Sustainability in Codes and Standards: Impact on the Roof Coatings Industry”
Michael Fischer, Kellen Company

•           “The Roots and Future of Sustainability”
Steve Heinje, Quest Construction Products

•           “Methods for Measuring Energy Savings on Highly Reflective Coatings”
Daniel Bustos, DuPont Titanium Technologies

•           “When the Going Gets Rough: The Impact of Substrate Texture on Solar Reflectance Ratings”
Jeffrey Steuben, Cool Roof Rating Council

•           “Impact of Dynamic Insulation Technologies on Steep-Slope Roof Assemblies”
Dr. Kaushik Biswas, Oak Ridge National Laboratory

•           “Advances in Developing Standards for Accelerated Aging of Cool Roofing Materials”
Dr. Hashem Akbari, Concordia University

•           “Cool Surfaces: An International Opportunity”
Kurt Shickman, Global Cool Cities Alliance

The RCMA Summer Meeting, open to RCMA members and to those attendees interested in learning more about membership, followed the conclusion of the IRCC. In addition to committee updates covering codes and standards, VOC regulations, and other key industry issues, outside speakers from the United States Green Building Council, the Maryland Department of the Environment, the American Trucking Association, Health Products Declarations Collaborative, and Surface Optics Corporation provided additional educational content for meeting attendees. A highlight to the RCMA Summer Meeting was the Associates Function on Wednesday night, where members had the opportunity to exhibit and to raffle off door prizes.

For more information on the RCMA and to access the conference presentations please visit the RCMA website: www.roofcoatings.org.