Congress 2000 takes attendees Beyond Traditional Boundaries

Nearly 4,000 engineering professionals attended ASME's International Mechanical Engineering Congress and Exposition in November. Attendance at Congress 2000 in Orlando, Fla., was 25 percent higher than in 1999, when it was in Nashville, Tenn.

The Young Engineers Forum had a record attendance of students — 73 percent. Overall attendence was 45 percent higher than 1999. The forum program included insight into the role of mechanical engineers at Walt Disney World from three engineering executives, Shawn Boling, Michael Labonge and Mario Scarabino. Results of a survey to find out what young engineers would like ASME to offer showed that 33 percent wanted ASME to organize company tours for entry-level engineers wherever possible.

Participants registered for more than 450 technical sessions related to the highlight topic at Congress: Beyond Traditional Boundaries.

The Middle School Teachers' workshop, an annual event at the Congress, was attended by 45 teachers, who worked on engineering projects and learned how to teach engineering concepts to their students.

When they weren't attending sessions on Tissue Engineering or the Fluid Power Industry, participants visited the exhibit floor in great numbers. While on the floor, attendees got to see the X-plane, NASA's version of a stealth vehicle. GDJ's microturbine and wind tunnel also held the interest of visitors as did the missle displays by Lockheed Martin.

Some 500 Congress participants who stopped in at the ASME pavilion were rewarded with ASME hats for solving a technical puzzle.

In fact, traffic at the exhibit was so good that 50 percent of the exhibit space was sold for Congress 2001 in New York City.

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