Officials of the Composites In-stitute and the Composites Fabri-cators Association advanced the concept of a joint conference and trade show in a long afternoon of serious discussions Oct. 29 in Philadelphia. ``We made good progress toward putting together a contract for the year 2000,'' Gary Multanen said in a telephone interview, ``and the task force -three from CI and three from CFA - is scheduled to meet in Washington, D.C., Nov. 11.''
Any combined event will need to occur in a convention center, Multanen noted. The joint gathering would supplant the groups' major meetings for that year, potentially attracting 3,000 attendees from the Composites Institute and 2,000 from CFA.
CFA representatives on the task force are: Multanen, president of Fiberglass Systems Inc. of Boise, Idaho; Gerald Bender, corporate vice president of Molded Fiber Glass Cos. in Ashtabula, Ohio; and Bo Dismukes, director of marketing in Hermitage, Tenn., for Vetrotex CertainTeed Corp.
Composites Institute representatives are: P. Richard DiRienzo, president of Haysite Reinforced Plastics in Erie, Pa.; Neil Mc-Carthy, vice president of Premix Inc.'s custom molding group in North Kingsville, Ohio; and Terry McCabe, director of technical marketing for Inter-Plastics Corp. in St. Paul, Minn.
The New York-based Com-posites Institute, a division of the Society of the Plastics Industry Inc., has 400 corporate members and will hold its International Composites Expo '97 in Nashville, Tenn., Jan. 27-29.
McLean, Va.-based CFA has 700 member companies with most fabricating products of fiber-reinforced plastics. Last month's CFA Composites '96 show was held in facilities at a large Dallas hotel. Next year, CFA will coordinate with the Society for the Advance-ment of Material and Process Engineering for Composites '97 in Orlando, Fla., beginning Oct. 29.