With 427 exhibitors and more than 7,500 overall participants from 69 countries (2010: 328/6,700), the third edition of the American Coatings Show and Conference broke all of its previous records for visitors, exhibitors and footprint. The organizers—the American Coatings Association and Vincentz Network—said they were very pleased that each of the biennial events has increased in attendance.

Exhibitors from 19 countries (2010: 17) displayed a comprehensive range of products on more than 91,000 net square feet of exhibit space (2010: 68,100 square feet) covering all aspects of paint and coating formulation during the show held from May 8-10, 2012 at the Indiana Convention Center, Indianapolis. Companies from abroad accounted for 35 percent of the exhibitors, and in addition to the U.S., leading countries represented at the show included China, Germany, Canada, India, South Korea, United Kingdom and Turkey.

The keynote speakers at the conference this year emphasized the ties between science and industry at the plenary session. More than 1,000 attendees learned at the conference from May 7-9 about the most recent research results and industrial developments in 16 thematically structured sessions—among them hot topics like the latest developments in the world of smart and functional coatings.

The American Coatings Award, presented by the American Coatings Association and Vincentz Network, honors the most outstanding conference paper. This year, Dr. Antony van Dyk of Dow Coating Materials and Dr. Alan Nakatani from The Dow Chemical Company received the award for their paper, “Shear Rate Dependent Structure of Polymer Stabilized TiO2 Dispersions.”

The Roon Award, sponsored by the Coatings Industry Education Foundation, recognizes exceptional technical papers in the protective coatings field. The first place award went to Marshall Ming, Georgia Southern University, for “Smart Coatings for Self-Healing Corrosion Protection,” while second place went to Thomas Nelson, North Dakota State University, for “Catalyzed Crosslinking of Highly-Functional Bio-Based Resins.”

Dr. Stuart Croll, chair of the department of coatings and polymeric materials at North Dakota State University, was recognized with the J. Mattiello Memorial Lecture Award for his outstanding contributions to science, technology, and engineering related to the coatings industry.

The next regularly scheduled American Coatings Show and Conference will take place on April 7-10, 2014 at the Georgia World Congress Center in Atlanta, Ga.