Photonics West 2005 surpasses expectations

FEBRUARY 7--SPIE-The International Society for Optical Engineering (Bellingham, WA;www.spie.org) has just wrapped up its most successful technical meeting and exhibition ever: Photonics West, held 22--27 January in San Jose, CA, drew more than 15,000 attendees, shattering last year's attendance record. The number of exhibiting companies broke records, as well. There were 786 exhibiting companies at the Photonics West exhibition, with an additional 90 at the Biomedical Optics Symposium (BiOS) weekend exhibit, which constitutes a 32% increase over last year for the BiOS exhibit.

The interdisciplinary mixing of technologies among the four technical symposia continues to appeal to participants from around the world. The Biomedical Optics and Optoelectronic Symposia experienced significant growth in the number of participants this year, and the BiOS weekend exhibit grew by 30% to 90 companies.

With the exhibition selling out a full seven months before the event, and with a significant waiting list of hopeful companies, SPIE is looking forward to using a new Exhibition Pavilion, to be built by the City of San Jose and completed by June 2005. This conveniently located structure will house more than 300 companies and will have exhibit-friendly amenities not found in the expanded exhibit areas used for the last few years.

Said SPIE executive director Eugene Arthurs, "From all that we heard, this meeting was a great success. And with the help of the community, we will continue to improve the value of this event."