2013 Conference in Aalen, Germany

4 Nov 2013: ILDA Trade Show (free admission to anyone), and Laser Safety Officer class (additional course fee applies)

5-6 Nov 2013: ILDA Conference, including business meeting, seminars, Lase-Off, Laser Jockey voting and Awards Banquet

7 Nov 2013: ILDA cultural day: Guided tour of the medieval Bavarian city Rothenburg ob der Tauber. A travel columnist's article about why he "fell in love with Rothenburg" is here.

Both ILDA Members and non-members such as Laserfreaks can attend the ILDA Conference. (Registration costs are higher for non-members, and the ILDA Business Meeting is only open to Members.) There are some events such as the ILDA Awards, Lase-Off, and cultural tour which are also open to spouses and guests. Conference Registration information is below.

Every person registered for the Conference will receive a commemorative ILDA 13/Aalen pin:

The ILDA Trade Show on 4 November is open to any interested person; there is no charge to attend. If you are interested in exhibiting, there is a charge. More information is maintained by LOBO on their ILDA Trade Show page.

The Conference hotel is the 4-star Ramada Hotel Limes-Thermen Aalen. It is on the edge of the Swabian Alps and is directly linked to the famous Limes-Thermen mineral baths. There is more information about the several thermal pools and the clothing-free sauna at LOBO's ILDA Conference FAQ page.

ILDA has reserved 30 out of the 146 sleeping rooms. Breakfast is included with the hotel room if booked through ILDA. We expect these rooms to go very fast, especially because the Laserfreak meeting will be in the same location. So you should reserve as early as possible to ensure staying in the Conference hotel. As of April 30 2013, we have been told that there are no rooms available for staying extra days after the conference, but if you want to stay over, please check with the hotel to see if a room has opened up.

Other area hotels are available but will not have ILDA Conference rates, and won't offer same-building convenience.

ILDA Member pricing is €79 (~$100) per night for a single, €94 (~$120) for a double. Internet WiFi access is €10 (~$13) per day. A taxi from the Aalen train station is about €10-12 (~$13-$16). Breakfast is included for ILDA Members.

Getting to Aalen

Aalen is in the center of south Germany. The closest international airport is Stuttgart Airport (STR) which is about 90 minutes away by train, or 70 minutes by car. Frankfurt Airport (FRA) is about 2.5 hours by train or car, and Munich Airport (MUC) is about 3.5 hours by train or 2 hours by car. From Stuttgart or Frankfurt we recommend taking the convenient railway. Train tickets can be booked in advance at DB Bahn; discounted rates apply on early bookings.

About Aalen

Almost 2000 years ago, Aalen was the home of the largest Roman Empire cavalry north of the Alps. It was a sovereign free city-state from 1360 to 1803.

Aalen is known for the "Limes-Thermen" thermal pools. Four are indoors and one is outdoors, with warm mineral water welling up from 600 meters below ground. The town center retains its medieval charm, although the greater city hosts high-tech machining and photonics companies such as Zeiss, Leitz and our host company LOBO. (For tourist information, see the city's webpage in German or in English.)

About LOBO

Founded by Lothar Bopp, LOBO is active in 70 countries and is one of the top laser display companies. From manufacturing their own equipment, to producing world-class shows LOBO does it all with quality, receiving 139 ILDA Awards -- more than any other company. LOBO is also very active in ILDA; for example, Alex Hennig has served on ILDA's Board of Directors since Nov. 2010.

Evening events such as the Welcome Reception, Lase-Off and ILDA Awards banquet will be held at LOBO's headquarters building, shown above. It is about 5 minutes from the hotel.

LOBO has established a webpage for more information. Use the menu at the top of their page for more information about Aalen, the schedule, hotel, directions, sightseeing, and a FAQ.

You can register for the Conference by visiting the ILDA Online Store. If you have any trouble registering, or if you have special requirements, contact ILDA directly and we will help.

     • ILDA Member Full Conference Registration includes all lunches and dinners, Welcome Reception, Lase-Off, Awards Banquet, General Business Meeting, seminars and workshops, tradeshow, and cultural tour. The ILDA Member registration fee is $545 through 31 July, $645 from 1 August through 15 October, and $790 starting 16 October.

     • Non-member Full Conference Registration includes all events listed immediately above except the General Business Meeting, which is only for Members. The non-Member registration fee is $795 through 31 July, $895 from 1 August through 15 October, and $1045 starting 16 October.

     • Spouse/Guest Registration includes all lunches and dinners, the Welcome Reception, the Lase-Off, the Awards Banquet and the cultural tour. It does NOT include the General Business Meeting, the seminars and workshops. (A spouse/guest is defined as someone staying in the room of a person who has registered for the full Conference.) The registration fee for a spouse/guest of a Member is $460.

     • The ILDA Laser Safety Officer - Lasershows course is held November 4. The LSO course fee for ILDA Members is $560 through 31 July, and $660 August 1 or later. The course fee for non-Members is $835 through 31 July, and $935 August 1 or later. For any persons who have previously taken, but not passed, the LSO course, the Aalen re-take fee is $65 -- note that you can only re-take once at this lower price. All LSO fees include lunch and breaks. (Note for Europeans: The material on laser safety is international; however, the course only covers U.S. regulations and notification requirements.)

Single event pricing

We have two single-event registrations available for anyone interested, who is not a Full or Spouse/Guest registrant. These events are available at the ILDA Online Store (or if you have difficulty, contact ILDA directly):

     • Lase-Off/Laser Jockey, $225 as a single event. This includes the dinner beforehand.
     • Awards Banquet and Presentation, $225 as a single event. This includes the Awards Banquet dinner, plus the Awards Presentation event.

Hotel reservations

Don't forget to make your reservations directly with the Conference hotel.

Note: Event times are subject to change. A final schedule will be provided to all attendees when they register at the Conference. Photos depict events at previous ILDA Conferences.

This was the best-attended ILDA Conference of the 21st century. Thank you to LOBO for their fine organizing, and co-scheduling of the LaserFreak conference, which helped make this possible.

FULL CONFERENCE REGISTRANTS

Dirk Apitz, Beamwalk / DexLogic
Christian Maus, Coherent, Inc.
Andreas Zuck, Coherent, Inc.
Francesco van Loon, Collimated
Michal Krauze-Wultanski, Copernicus Science Center
Dieter Hartzsch, DH Elektronik
Fatih Eser, Effect Ses Isik Lazer ve Goruntu Sistemleri Ltd. Sti.
Olga Eser, Effect Ses Isik Lazer ve Goruntu Sistemleri Ltd. Sti.
Emre Kavsak, Effect Ses Isik Lazer ve Goruntu Sistemleri Ltd. Sti.
Dirk Gantefort, GT-TECH
Malcolm Hignett, Individual Member
Nisha Ramnath, Image Engineering
Richard Schäfer, Individual Member
Markus Steblei, Individual Member
James Stewart, Individual Member
Greg Sutherland, Individual Member
Matthias Frank, Institute of Computer Science 4 (University of Bonn)
Viktor Dubec, Kvant Ltd.
Pavol Kubosek CSc., Kvant Ltd.
Barbora Kuboskova, Kvant Ltd.
Dusan Navara, Kvant Ltd.
Michal Simkovic, Kvant Ltd.
Ling Zhu, Kvant Ltd.
Mauro Comendulli, Laser Entertainment s.r.l.
Lorenzo Pompei, Laser Entertainment s.r.l.
Tom Harman, Laser Production Network (LaserNet)
Christine Jenkin, Laser Production Network (LaserNet)
Horacio Pugliese, Laser Production Network (LaserNet)
Walt Meador, Laser Rentals, Inc.
Shunsuke Naoshima, Laser Show Ware, Inc.
Yoshihiro Sato, Laser Show Ware, Inc.
Timothy Walsh, Laser Spectacles, Inc.
Michael Sollinger, LaserAnimation SOLLINGER GmbH
Henrik Hoffman, Laserimage AB
Johan Lindell, Laserimage AB
Claes Magnuson, Laserimage AB
Manick Sorcar, LaserLight Magic
Susanne Bochmann, Laserlight Showdesign
Patrick Dietzel, Laserlight Showdesign
Dmitry Leykin, LASERMASTER LLC
Alexey Shishkov, LASERMASTER LLC
Denis Vorobyev, LASERMASTER LLC
Robert Teorey, Lasertainment Productions International, Inc.
Derek Garbos, LaserTech Canada
Claudette Linton, LaserTech Canada
Detlef Meyer, Lightforce Showlasertechnik
Johannes Rengstorf, Lightforce Showlasertechnik
Greg Makhov, Lighting Systems Design, Inc.
Reimar Hafkemeyer, Lightline Lasertechnik GmbH
Marco Stümpel, Lightline Lasertechnik GmbH
Mike Dunn, Lightwave International, Inc.
Marc-Andre Hecht, mackel.eu
Wlodek Duval, Mediam Sp. z o.o.
Mario Tomazetich, MT-Electronic
Joachim Mueller, Mueller Elektronik
Guido Jaeger, Mylaserpage
Alain Neuens, Neuens, Alain
Adrian Moussa, NewAje
Maxim Ishchik, Orion-Art Multimedia
Pavel Korotkov, Orion-Art Multimedia
Sergey Maltsev, Orion-Art Multimedia
Kirill Nikitochkin, Orion-Art Multimedia
Mikhail Smirnov, Orion-Art Multimedia
Alexander Timofeev, Orion-Art Multimedia
Cathleen Bastian, Pangolin Laser Systems, Inc.
William Benner, Pangolin Laser Systems, Inc.
Justin Perry, Pangolin Laser Systems, Inc.
Ante Uglesic, Pangolin Laser Systems, Inc.
Jim Martin, Peachtree Laser Inc.
Mirko Kloweit, Planetarium Hamburg
Hrvoje Šimić, Prolight
Michael Higlett, Public Health England
Danielle Sawtell, Pyrotecnico F/X & Lasers
Jan Ringen, Quantum Satis Media
Robin Adams, RayComposer
Peter Broerse, RGBLASER B.V.
Michal Pokluda, Showtacle Ltd.
Robert Singer, spectrabeam.de
Bernd Steinert, spectrabeam.de
Chris Stuart, Stuart Technologies Unltd.

GUEST REGISTRANTS

Isabell Jaeger, Mylaserpage
Barbara Harman, Laser Production Network (LaserNet)
Phyllis Monahan, Lighting Systems Design, Inc.
Maja Uglesic, Pangolin Laser Systems, Inc.
Helen Martin, Peachtree Laser Inc.
Amy Kent, Stuart Technologies Unltd.
Helen Mehan, Laser Spectacles, Inc.

AWARDS BANQUET/PRESENTATION REGISTRANTS

Peter Vogt, Coherent, Inc.
Werner Ziegs, Coherent, Inc.
Andreas Juergens, ACLS-Laser, Andreas Juergens
David Senior, ACLS-Laser, Andreas Juergens

PERSONS WHO TOOK THE LASER SAFETY OFFICER CLASS ON NOV. 4

Henrik Hoffman, Laserimage AB
Niels van de Wijngaart, Laserimage B.V.
Marcin Prasalek, Laserimage B.V.
Ensar Turan, Laserimage B.V.
Jeroen Winnubst, Laserimage B.V.
Toby Macknight, Laser Grafix
Hrvoje Šimić, Prolight
Danielle Sawtell, Pyrotecnico F/X & Lasers

(Tradeshow report provided by Tim Walsh, Laser Spectacles)

On Monday 4 November, prior to the actual Conference, ILDA held a tradeshow at the Ramada hotel. This was open to ILDA Members as well as persons who attended the Laserfreak meeting held November 1-3, also sponsored by LOBO.

The 2013 ILDA Conference was held 4-7 November, hosted by LOBO. This page summarizes some of the events.

Every person registered for the Conference received a commemorative ILDA 13/Aalen pin, and a USB drive containing videos of every ILDA Award-winning lasershow (1st, 2nd, and 3rd places each, in 15 categories).

The Conference officially began with the ILDA Business Meeting on 5 November.

Board and President elections

There were two candidates for the two Board of Directors seats that were up for election. Since there was no need to hold a vote, the two candidates were elected by acclamation. Congratulations to Dan Goldsmith of X-Laser (re-elected) and Francesco van Loon of Collimated (elected to the seat previously held by Justin Perry). These two join the other three Directors: Christine Jenkin, Olga Eser, and Alex Hennig.

Incidentally, this appears to be the first Board where the majority of Directors are from outside the U.S. (Francesco, Olga and Alex).

On the second day of the Business Meeting, on 6 November, just one of the Board members chose to run for President. This meant that Christine Jenkin was elected by acclamation for another term as ILDA President — congratulations!

Location of the 2014 Conference: Las Vegas

The attendees then heard about proposals for the 2014 ILDA Conference. This had originally been scheduled for New York City, hosted by Robert Teorey, but we could not find reasonably-priced facilities in the city. Prior to the conference, ILDA had tentatively moved the 2016 Conference in Baltimore to 2014. Both X-Laser and Image Engineering very generously offered to host in 2014.

But during the Aalen meeting there was a new proposal for Las Vegas in 2014, co-hosted by Robert Teorey and Tom Harman (LaserNet), both of whom have shows running in Las Vegas. The attendees voted for this plan, which keeps the 2016 Conference in Baltimore (and gives Image Engineering some well-deserved breathing room to plan!).

After the planned agenda was presented, the floor was opened to new business.

EU Regulatory committee and "Kid Krypton"

Peter Broerse presented a proposal for ILDA to have geographic sections, to better undertake activities that only might affect a certain region such as Europe or Asia. After discussion, the most important regional activity seemed to be EU laser regulations, especially drastic restrictions in France. (Apparently, indoor shows in France cannot use Class 4 lasers in any way.)

So Peter then proposed forming an EU Regulatory committee. This passed, with Peter agreeing to be chair. The first two members who volunteered were Markus Steblei and Richard Schäfer.

Tom Harman gave a presentation about “Kid Krypton”. This was a show he had created to get children interested in laser light. His goal was to get assistance with turning the storyboard and soundtrack already prepared, into a finished show.

There was no other new ILDA association business, so the Conference then went on to the various daytime seminars and nighttime events.

The following presentations were given during the ATW, organized and chaired by Dirk Apitz. For more information, click to download the ATW agenda.

     • Optical scanner theory and presentation of new scanners from ScannerMAX. William R. Benner, Jr., Pangolin Laser Systems

     • Compact, low-cost, dual-axis DSP-based servo driver from ScannerMAX. William R. Benner, Jr., Pangolin Laser Systems

     • Ladis - Laser disable. Michael Sollinger, LaserAnimation SOLLINGER

     • Wireless remote control of Phaenon X projectors. Michael Sollinger, LaserAnimation SOLLINGER

     • RaseR laser projector. Derek Garbos and Claudette Linton, LaserTech Canada, and Michael Sollinger, LaserAnimation SOLLINGER

     • StageFeed ISP and StageMate ISP, teleportation of waveforms. Dirk Apitz, DexLogic

     • Early prototype implementation of a software-based ILDA Digital Network (IDN) sender. Matthias Frank, University of Bonn Laser and Light Lab, Institute of Computer Science 4

     • Integrated laser show controller. Michal Pokluda, Showtacle Ltd.

     • Intro to Prolight Laser Harp Controller Pro. Hrvoje Šimić, Prolight

     • Introducing RayComposer. Robin Adams

     • Lasershow Designer BEYOND. William R. Benner, Jr., Pangolin Laser Systems

     • LaserGame. Patrick Dietzel, Laserlight Showdesign (not listed in time to be included in the ATW document)

The Laser Jockey competition was held during the Lase-Off on 5 November. Each person presented two live laser displays. The first was to music of their choosing and the second was unknown to them and selected by a DJ. Congratulations to the winners:

     • Tim Walsh, Laser Spectacles, First Place
     • Tom Harman, LaserNet, Second Place
     • Jan Ringen, Quantum Satis Media, Third Place

The main part of the Conference ended on 6 November with the ILDA Awards banquet and presentation. Dirk Baur was the Master of Ceremonies for the presentation. A complete list of all 2013 ILDA Award winners is here.

The following is from an ILDA List email message sent by Tim Walsh, ILDA Awards Committee chair, on Nov. 20.

Thank you to all of the participants in the ILDA LaseOff and Awards production!

Special thanks go to Horacio Pugliese of LaserNet, and Marco Stümpel from Lightline Lasertechnik. Horacio not only designed and built a very elegant 6-channel ILDA ISP switcher, but worked tirelessly all day on Nov. 5 to connect the five different computer systems into the system and make sure that all was working correctly. Marco and Lightline sponsored, brought, and set up all of the laser projectors used in our events (9 projectors were set up), and Marco was right by Horacio's side all day making everything happen correctly.

Others who had a hand in the production -

     • LOBO's staff, standing by all day and responding to all of our requests with good humor and efficiency.

     • Greg Makhov, who brought his irradiance meter, stood by most of the day, and checked the safety of the beams when each new computer was added into the setup.

     • Bill Benner, who was on hand all day to assist Pangolin users participating in the LaseOff.

     • Dirk Baur, who stepped up, put on his tuxedo, and was our Master of Ceremonies for the Awards ceremony.

Thanks also to those members who provided programming and performances at the LaseOff; this involved a lot of waiting for a turn at the computers and everyone was patient and cooperative.

Best regards to all and hope to see you next year in Las Vegas!