Next month (Sept. 14-15), industry professionals from around the world will come together in Lombard, Illinois, for Coatings Trends & Technologies (CTT), an annual event developed to help coatings manufacturers find solutions to improve their formulations. PCI partners with the Chicago Society for Coatings Technology to develop CTT, and we strive each year to bring something new to the event.
This year, we are excited to feature a panel discussion on the morning of September 15, featuring four professionals from various areas of the value chain to discuss technology transfer – the process of innovating, scouting new technologies and leveraging them into business. The discussion will focus on the Want, Find, Get, Manage® business model developed by Dr. Gene Slowinski. Dr. Slowinski is the Director, Strategic Alliance and Open Innovation Research, at Rutgers Business School, as well as Manager, Strategic Alliances, at Alliance Management Group Inc.
Following this model, panelists will open the discussion to questions that all businesses face, such as:
- (Want) What steps do you take to define the needs of your customer(s)?
- (Find) What techniques do you use to scout the potential solutions for the identified needs?
- (Get) What is your business model for acquiring technology?
- (Manage) What methods do you use to acquire technology?
Our panelists include Dr. Vickie Scarborough, recently retired Program Director of the External Innovation Global Resource Team at The Sherwin Williams Co.; Darrell Christopher, Regional Manager, Midwest, at Brenntag Specialties, Inc.; Michael McKee, Intellectual Property Attorney for Howard & Howard Attorneys; and Dr. Monica Tisack, Director of the Mississippi Polymer Institute, which is the outreach arm of the School of Polymers & High Performance Materials at The University of Southern Mississippi and serves to foster business growth.
Our panelists bring knowledge and experience from a variety of areas of industry, academia and business. Audience questions and participation are encouraged, and we are excited to see the direction this discussion follows. It is often the case that attendees are not comfortable asking questions in a room full of potential customers or competitors, so PCI has created a page on our CTT website, www.coatingsconference.com, where questions can be submitted ahead of time for those who are interested.
We hope that you will join us for CTT – not just to listen to and participate in this panel discussion, but also to hear our keynote speaker, Ben Scharff, Managing Director of Grace Matthews, discuss how mergers and acquisitions across the coatings landscape are reshaping the market, as well as visit with our 100 exhibitors and attend our 34 technical presentations, which will share the latest raw material and equipment technology available to coatings formulators and manufacturers. It promises to be a great event. You can learn more and register at www.coatingsconference.com.
