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April 17, 2006
AWEB, IWEB, a minor controversy
AWEB is around the corner, the new Applied Web Handling Conference sponsored by AIMCAL. I've had my fingers deeply into this conference from it conception.
AWEB-IWEB controversy? What controversy?
It's seems some of the folks involved with IWEB (the International Conference on Web Handling, sponsored by Oklahoma State University's Web Handling Research Center) have some hard feelings about this new AWEB conference.
I wish they didn't feel this way. I view the AWEB conference as a complementary effort to the IWEB conference. I've felt this way since before AWEB was even on the drawing board.
I've attended the IWEB conference for years, starting in 1991. It's a great conference. I've learned a great deal about the most advanced work in web handling, with many papers covering work at the PhD or Master's engineering thesis level.
But after attending IWEB for many years, I felt there was room for something more, something that would help bring the advanced concepts down a notch to the applied level. While at 3M, one of my jobs was to learn something from the advance research at the WHRC and figure out how to apply it to make better 3M products or processes.
I feel that there is a great appetitie to help more engineers understand how to apply the advanced concepts of IWEB and similar advanced or academic resources. In the post IWEB conference discussion sessions in 2003 and 2005, I advocated for IWEB to expand and find a way to address this need. Alas, IWEB is quite successful and being so doesn't always create the driving force for growth or change.
In comes AIMCAL and their interest in a possible applied web handling conference. AIMCAL has been sponsoring web handling as part of their summer school program and held technical conferences for many years on topics of coating, drying, metalizing, etc., often with a equipment supplier's POV, but open to others.
I jumped at the opportunity to help AIMCAL get this concept off the ground, something that the WHRC seemed to have little interest (at least little action) in pursuing. That said, very early in the AWEB planning process, I contacted Dr. Karl Reid, the WHRC Director and invited him to the table, seeing an obvious win-win situation for these two conferences to complement each other.
How IWEB and AWEB work together?
IWEB - Advanced web handling papers, aimed at top web handling experts of academia and industry, held in odd-numbered years at OK-State Univ.
AWEB - Applied web handling papaers, aimed at the next tier of the web handling technical community, held in even-numbered years at a rotating location.
The idea is for AWEB to fill a niche. In business, it's called the loose brick theory. When you go into a market, don't go at it's strength, don't try to compete with the strongest product out there. Go where the market has a need. If the product is web handling technology transfer, the high and low end are strong bricks.
IWEB is the premier, Lexus-BMW of WH technology transfer. There are tens or hundreds of engineers looking for this product.
There are many Kia-Hyundi, fundamentals seminars for web handlers. There are thousands to tens of thousands of technical folks needing this product.
The loose brick is the middle of the pyramid, the Toyota-Chevy product, something between fundamentals and advanced. What we are calling applied. There are hundreds to thousands looking for this product. We hope to bring it to them.
So what controversy is there? I hope none. I think some IWEB folks saw the new conference name, AWEB, and found it too close. That imitation wasn't flattering. From there, it's easy to see what you want to see and hear what you want to hear.
For the few of you in this camp, it's probably hopeless to convince you otherwise, but please give AWEB another look and realize that this new conference is an opportunity to grow the web handling community, including driving more people up from the Toyota product to the Lexus product.
I hope this isn't too much of a rant, but I feel strongly about smoothing the waters of the web handling world.
tjw
Posted by Tim Walker at April 17, 2006 06:02 PM
