This was the first day of the SIB fair. ILDA provided a shuttle bus from the headquarters conference hotel to SIB, so attendees could visit the fair.

SIB included many laser companies with large exhibits, such as ILDA member Kvant (pictured at right). Two companies, ILDA members LOBO and Laser Entertainment, had immense stands with hourly shows that played to standing-room-only audiences.

ILDA had a stand at the SIB fair, thanks to conference sponsors Cambridge Technology. Pangolin Laser Systems was also a conference sponsor. (During the conference, Neo-Laser also made a sponsorship donation.)

One of the highlights of the Conference's first day was the exceptional job done by Julie Stewart of Laser Visuals. She volunteered to put together the entire Laserist magazine from ads to editorial to production to shipping. She created a 16-page full-color issue in an amazing five days, and it looked great. Congratulations and our heartfelt thanks to Julie! Click here to see The Laserist in Adobe PDF format (1.2 MB).
 

2006 Conference Sponsors
Click to visit their websites

Photos on this page are
courtesy L. Michael Roberts. More photos are available at his Flickr website.

The first official ILDA day started off with the Advanced Technology Workshop. The ATW was held in a meeting room inside the SIB show, at the Rimini Fiera. It featured presentations of a number of new products and concepts:

ATW Software

• Updates and improvements to Lasershow Designer 2000 version 4.0, from William R. Benner, Jr. of Pangolin Laser Systems

• Lasershow Designer 4D, a new 3D graphics and animation program designed specifically for laser shows, also from Pangolin

• Mamba Black, laser show software that allows connection to almost any existing output hardware, demonstrated by Dirk Baur of MediaLas

ATW Hardware
 

The ILDA shuttle bus took attendees each day between the headquarters hotel and the SIB trade fair, where ILDA events such as the ATW were held. To help find the bus, ILDA member Richard Gonsalves used -- what else? -- his laser pointer.

• ScanMaster 3 laser applications platform for creating intelligent, autonomous laser projectors, from Dirk Apitz at C-Soft. Dirk also showed an all-in-one white-light laser projector/controller about the size of a shoebox.

• A new scanner safety monitoring system, featuring high-performance error detection, shutter control, and zone control, from Lutz Bartl of HB Laserkomponenten.

• The Flashback 3 SE credit-card sized laser controller can be embedded in a projector or connect to a PC as a low-cost output board, from Pangolin.

• The Smurfy low-power galvo includes a built-in driver. It is small, at only 34 x 29 x 30 mm and can run on batteries. MediaLas's Dirk Baur demonstrated a standard lantern-type flashlight modified to become a complete laser projector thanks to the Smurfy.

ATW Lasers

• A 5-watt moving-head projector with multiple diffraction gratings for novel multi-image projectoin effects, the Accurate BLITZ Stage was shown by Michael Sollinger of Laser Animation Sollinger.

• Michael also showed a compact, 1/2-watt white-light laser projector, the Accurate BLITZ Cosmo.

ATW Lunch
 

Dirk Apitz of C-Soft opens his backpack and pulls out a shoebox-sized full-color laser projector including controller and power supply.

During the ATW, attendees were treated to lunch in the Rimini Fiera restaurant. Attendees enjoyed talking with each other informally over an excellent multi-course Italian meal (photos at right).

ATW Product of the Year winners

At the conclusion of the ATW, attendees voted for the best product in each of the three categories. The winners (announced at the Awards Banquet the next night) were:

• Software Product of the Year: Lasershow Designer 4D from Pangolin
• Hardware Product of the Year: Flashback 3 SE from Pangolin
• Laser of the Year: Accurate BLITZ Stage from Laser Animation Sollinger.

In the evening, the annual Lase-Off was held. It was located in the spacious underground ballroom of the headquarters hotel. It began with a buffet dinner. After dessert, the Lase-Off featured graphics and beam shows brought to the meeting by members, as well as classics from the past.

Unfortunately, a storm had arisen outside, blowing cold air into the room. By the next night (Awards Banquet), ILDA members had taken over the HVAC and could provide a comfortable temperature. But it was chilly in the Lase-Off for those without jackets.
 

Beams filled the room at the Lase-Off.

The day began back at the SIB trade fair, in ILDA's conference room. Former ILDA president Alberto Kellner gave an address on "The Latest in Laser Displays". He spoke in Italian, since so many SIB attendees were from Italy. (This address was open to all SIB attendees.)

 Next, Greg Makhov of Lighting Systems Design Inc. spoke about laser safety. This was followed by an artistic seminar given by LOBO's Alex Hennig.

The rest of the day was given over to attending the SIB show.
 

Greg Makhov leads the safety seminar

In the evening, ILDA presented the Awards Banquet. Although the doors opened late, food was served right away, making it only 14 minutes behind schedule.

ILDA president Dirk Baur and executive director Patrick Murphy announced the Awards -- the first one not MC'd by Steve Heminover in over 18 years. For a complete list of award winners, see this page; for a PDF copy of the 32-page program handed out at the conclusion of the evening, click here.

As usual, the evening was a long one. After the official ceremonies were over, it switched into informal mode. Those who stayed were able to view other Awards entries, the runners-up.

Many of those in attendance liked the informality of this better than the more formal Lase-Off and Awards Banquet presentations. The lasers stopped around 3 am, with the last diehards still discussing laser and ILDA business.
 

L. Michael Roberts accepts his Career Achievement Award. Only seven individuals in ILDA's 20-year history have received this prestigious honor.
Photo courtesy Peter Broerse.

L-R: Executive director Patrick Murphy, board members Peter Mayer,
Dirk Baur (president), William R. Benner, Jr. and Craig Nelson.
 

On the final day, the ILDA Board made presentations to members about new initiatives, and heard discussion on member concerns. There were many topics discussed, and lively debate amongst members. Among the topics:

• Resignation of James Stewart of Laser Visuals from the Board, just before the Conference. The members thanked James with applause for his work while on the Board.
   
• Nominations for the open position on the Board. Applicants will be reviewed by the Board, who can then select the new member to temporarily fill the empty seat until the next election. If you would like to be considered, write to ILDA's Executive Director.
   
• Discussion of possibly changing the ILDA Conference to occur every two years. This was voted down, in favor of keeping the yearly conference but "tweaking" it to become less formal and stuffy -- more like the earlier years of ILDA.
   
• Whether to continue to hold ILDA in conjunction with trade shows. The consensus seemed to be that this made the show too frantic and unfocused, especially for exhibitors needing to choose between the larger host show and ILDA's events. So in the near future, ILDA will probably be a stand-alone show.
   
• Members will be polled as to their preference for ILDA Conference dates. It was recognized that no single time of the year is best for everyone. There was approval for 2007, rather than trying to have a second Conference in late 2006.
   
• The idea of an informal "ILDA Party" get-together was discussed. This would be arranged by a company desiring to host a 2-3 day event with more informal presentations. ILDA would lend some assistance but most of the arrangements work would be done by the local host. Hugo Bunk and Dirk Apitz were especially interested in this concept.
   
• Discussion of future show locations. There were four locations brought to the members:
     --  Beijing, China, with host Jim Hardaway
         of Neo-Laser.
     --  South Africa, with host Ian Powell
     --  Orlando, self-hosted by ILDA.
     --  On a Carnival cruise ship, with host
         Christine Jenkin of LaserNet.
         Discussion seemed to be focused on the first two cities. The ILDA Board will get presentations from Jim and Ian, and anyone else who may want to help host the conference in their home city. If you are interested, contact ILDA. The final decision will be made by the Board later this year.
   
• Discussion of ILDA participation in PALME and other trade fairs. (After the Conference, the Board received additional analysis showing a very low budget for travel to fairs -- even if the stand space is furnished free to ILDA. So it may be that local participation, or sponsored travel, may be the best way to handle this. The Board will continue to look into this.)

• Discussion of the new Gold-Silver-Bronze membership classification program. Most members seemed to approve of this. After the membership meeting was over, additional concerns were discussed in the ILDA booth with Patrick Murphy. All parties seemed to reach final agreement that GSB would be a workable improvement to help members, ILDA, and potential clients.
   
• Discussion of automatic renewal options for membership. Members liked this, plus they added the idea of having longer terms of membership (to avoid the hassle of yearly payments). The Board was authorized to look into various options.

Open discussion from the floor

• A suggestion was given to give ILDA Committees space on the ILDA website, to post what the committee is doing and how to join the committee.

Members meet informally with Patrick Murphy to give their ideas about the Gold-Silver-Bronze program. During discussion, all parties reached agreement on the best course of action for this program.

• A question was raised regarding ILDA's logo being printed in color on the 2006 Conference badges. (Logo guidelines state it should be in black or blue only.) The discussion went in two directions:
  
       One was the necessity of stopping misuse of the logo to falsely describe projectors as ILDA-compliant. This happens on eBay, for example. The Board replied that they have taken action in the past to pull violating eBay auctions, and they may take further action on logo usage in the future.
  
       The other discussion direction was regarding ILDA's staff and members having freedom to "tart up" the logo for non-critical uses. A hypothetical example was given of an Indian member who might want to add tiger stripes to the logo for a conference in India. (This would not apply to any licensed uses of the logo on projectors, which would have more stringent restrictions.)
        Murphy then specifically asked the person who raised the issue if the discussion direction was satisfactory. It seemed that they were satisfied with the discussion. (If not, they should write to mail@laserist.org to discuss further.)
   

The ILDA logo in its standard color.
 

There were some questions at the Conference about using the above non-standard version on the official badges.

 

At about 2 pm, the Membership Meeting was called to a close. It was good to see how many members stayed for the entire meeting. Obviously, members remain committed to ILDA and are passionate about their involvement.

The Membership Meeting was the last official ILDA activity of the conference. Many members met for various dinners together. At the ILDA Conference official headquarters hotel, the party went on at least until 3 am!

One of the best features of ILDA Conferences is getting together with other like-minded laserists. This picture was taken at 2:35 am local time, during the final party in the headquarters hotel.