The concept of the Glass Processing Days 2005 conference has been developed further

At the same time the weekend allows visitors to take possibly the family with them and enjoy the Finnish summer and culture”, says Mr Jorma Vitkala, Chairman of the Organising Committee.

More emphasis on glass processing and customer cases

GPD concept has been further developed in order to serve the glass processing industry better in a changing market. The content of GPD 2005 has been formulated to meet the required needs of, especially glass processors, industry specialist, designers and architects. The target is to attract more than 900 of these glass processing professionals.

As a reform from the previous GPD, the next conference will dedicate one whole day session for glass processing industry’s case studies. This time there will be for the first time glass processing companies introducing their business processes and sharing their experiences.

The Australian DMS Glass pty. ltd. is the first company to have confirmed its participation in the Case Studies section. Sales and Marketing Director Gerard McCluskey has promised to present the significant challenges and achievements since the business start-up until today.

“The idea of increasing the number of real case studies is to provide GPD 2005 participants pragmatic approach to different glass processing possibilities and challenges. The best way to learn in general is to analyse real cases and this way to use the others experience ´to develop own business processes”, Mr Vitkala continues.

Special attention to marketing methods and new coatings

As a novelty, GPD 2004 offers high standard lesson of “How to sell and market my products” . This lesson is targeted to people in glass processing field facing the challenges of today’s selling and marketing work. The target is to provide participants new ideas, common business and selling models.

GPD 2005 will also put an extra focus on coatings and processing coated glass, which will be a theme for one whole session. Each glass processor must have pondered about different types of glass coatings and their effect on business development. It is a fact that coated glass has come to stay. Hard coatings are being partially replaced by soft coatings at a quick pace, and the range available keeps growing by the time. The customers of the processors are well aware of the wide supply and extremely quality conscious.

Official call for papers announced

Most of the chairmen for GPD 2005 have already been chosen. The content design of the sessions is in schedule and the main guide lines for GPD 2005 have mainly been confirmed. The feedback collected on GPD 2003 and after the conference has been used to outline the content for the next conference even more focused to meet the needs of the glass processing industry.
It has been decided that the conference will have three main themes - Automotive and Architecture Glass, as previous times, and Global Market and Trends as a renamed and re-outlined theme. The official call for papers has been announced and organising committee receives abstracts via www.glassprocessingdays.com and www.glassfiles.com.
The opening speaker from Asahi Glass Company

Traditionally, the opening speakers of the GPD have been visionaries of the global glass industry and they have stimulated interesting discussions, which have continued long after the conferences. The GPD 2005 conference is honoured to have Mr. Luc Willame from Asahi Glass Company as the opening speaker. He is Senior Executive Vice President of the Asahi Glass Company and President of the “Flat Glass Company of Asahi Glass Company”. Mr. Willame’s topic will be “Shifting markets appealing for innovative glass products”.

The Glass Processing Days Conference is arranged by Glaston Technologies, which is the leading supplier of glass processing machinery and Kyro Group´s main business division. The Conference has been started in 1992 by Tamglass and the event has grown to become the leading forum of its kind in the world. It brings together researchers, designers, industrialists and processors for a common dialogue on the current state and outlook of the business. In 2003 this biennial Conference was held for the 8th time. The number of participants approached 900. In total some 230 expert presentations of a scientific and technological nature were presented on architectural, automotive and interior decorating aspects of safety glass.. Glaston Technologies comprises Tamglass, the technology and market leader in safety glass machinery, and Z. Bavelloni, the leading manufacturer of pre-processing machinery for glass. Glaston Technologies is Kyro Group’s Glass and Stone Technology Division. Kyro Corporation is a solid and growth-oriented technology company, which is listed on the Helsinki Exchanges.