The Western Coatings Symposium in Las Vegas

By Ralph J. Woerheide

It was a really interesting and inspiring event. First time in Vegas, first time with the WCS and yet met two guys who I knew only from Teams meetings and the internet before.

On the picture, you see our CEO Ralph J. Woerheide, Huzaifa Batalawa and Artur Palazs. We had exciting talks and share a common mindset to work on a significant change of the Paint and Coatings Industry.

The picture was taken on Sunday before the event started, we had a great time. Still many people were in separate groups but it was a start to make first contacts.

The three days of the conference took place in the Paris conference center with excellent speakers, a great catering and quite an extensive exhibition.

One of the big topics were sustainability, which was kind of surprising for me. As having spent most of my time in Europe so far, I thought that this is a more European topic and the US wouldn’t care too much about that. It was encouraging to find out, that this is not true at all. The US might have a different and more balanced approach, but still sustainability is highly important.

I was able to gather even more contacts and was delighted by the openess and willingness for the ideas and prodcuts from Metromation. I was not used to it from Germany, where a more reluctant business approach is in place when it comes to new ideas and technologies. First I thought it’s because of the sun and all the fun. But in my follow-ups my impression of the open and progressive business attitude was confirmed more than once. Thanks to all the people who were so open minded, this is what we need in this industry!