Aachen, June 2020 − The Institute for Plastics Processing (IKV) will this year go completely digital with its traditional conference, "International Colloquium Plastics Technology", because of the COVID-19 pandemic. The programme of lectures will be spread over four afternoons instead of two full days to take into account the special situation of the virtual participants. With the new concept, IKV will enable in particular international guests to participate in the event without complications – firstly through the time change of the program, which takes into account the different time zones, and secondly through the streaming of an English version of the lectures. The event has also been restructured so that two instead of three lecture sessions run in parallel, which means that the participants can ‘attend’ more lectures.
Despite the new aspects, the Colloquium will, even in the virtual format, remain true to its motto "Recruiting. Networking. Innovating." 15 lecture sessions with keynote papers from industry representatives plus research reports from IKV scientists will constitute the core element of the conference. The complete sessions will be shared with the community by live transmission from IKV, and the contents will then be up for discussion. Also the established plenary papers on current key topics affecting the industry – Industry 4.0 and circular economy – will be retained. The wide variety of topics will also be an important feature of the new digital colloquium. An opportunity for networking will be provided by forums and topic rooms, which, like the lectures and all other parts of the digital program, will be accessible via a specially developed Internet platform.
An important part of the colloquium has, for many years now, been the opportunity to take a look behind the scenes into the IKV laboratories and pilot plants. The real visit to the Institute in the context of "IKV 360°" will, in 2020, become a virtual visit with demonstrations of innovative projects and ongoing processes at around 60 stations from all IKV's research areas. Despite the forward-looking approach of the topics and projects, the anniversary will also take a look back: 70 years of IKV and the history of German plastics technology will be made visible in various digital offerings. For example, some of the best scenes from many years of "beer colloquia" will be presented in a “best-of” show. Also the presentation of the Georg Menges prize, which is awarded at every colloquium to an outstanding personality or institution from the field of plastics technology, will be covered digitally in the virtual room.
All information on the program and tickets for the conference can be found at www.ikv-colloquium.com.
Contact person
Heinz Dersch M.A.
tel.: +49 241 80-93811
heinz.dersch@ikv-rwth-aachen.de