photo report
Scenes from the 2005 Fuel Cell Seminar
Palm Springs, CA USA
November 14-18, 2005
Read the report
Palm Springs, California, lies in the mountains and desert east of Los Angeles, surrounded by wind farms. “The 10,” as Californians call I-10, is the Sonny Bono Freeway there in memory of the city’s former mayor and member of the U.S. House of Representatives. A major street, Palm Canyon Drive, is lined with exotic restaurants and shops, much like Fort Lauderdale’s Las Olas Boulevard. Other streets are named for the rich and famous who lived here at one time or another – Bob Hope, Frank Sinatra, Dinah Shore, Ginger Rogers, Gene Autry, Gerald Ford and Monty (“Let’s Make A Deal”) Hall. There are said to be 110 golf courses in the area, and some Seminar participants played golf on Monday for $150 (a deal!). Courtesy Associates, who organized this biggest of fuel cell conferences in the U.S. and said this was their best ever, sure knows how to pick a location. The 2006 Seminar, November 13-17, will be in the Hawaii Convention Center in Honolulu. That should be even warmer!
Seminar attendees got a warm Novemberwelcome in more ways than one – sunny with temperatures in the 80s every day.
Ready to show off Dexmetís microgrids are Bruce Bowman and Steve Tucker with help from Apollo Energy Systemsí Martin Cifrain.
Enjoying the exhibits are fuel cell veteran Karl Kordesch and wife Erda. Austrians who now live in Ohio say they love cold winters.
Holding down the booth for three companies are Jamie Mitchell of Solartron Analytical and Steve Woodard of Ametek.
Educating seminar attendees about AMREL’s eLoad programmable DC electronic loads and ePower programmable power supplies are Ivan Rustandi and Linda Talcott.
In a “shootout” with rival Du Pont, PolyFuel President Jim Balcom reports that his company’s hydrocarbon-based fuel cell membrane demonstrated 67% more power than fluorocarbon-based Nafion.
Demonstrating test equipment for potential customers are John Zhang, Arbin’s president, and Antony Parulian, V.P. of sales.
A photo op featuring FCT magazine gets the attention of Hiden Isochema’s Dr. Mike Benham and Xonics’ John Bullis.
FCT’sSeminar Meeting Report author, Dennis Sieminski, tours the exhibit hall with literature-collecting friend Genay Currow.
Graphiters’ get-together finds Asbury Carbon’s Roman Nykyforuk flanked by Superior Graphite’s Mathis Wissler and Jerry Hand.
First-time FC seminar exhibitor, Dan Nielsen of Innovative Machine Corp., says he can service both batteries and fuel cells.
Ready to talk about the ElectroGen5 fuel cell system on which he is leaning is Ken Pearson, IdaTech’s inside sales manager.
Telling interested exhibit hall tourists about their testing equipment are Blair Heffelfinger (left), general manager of FuelCon Systems, and Mathis Bode, CEO of parent company, FuelCon AG. .
Claiming their company does no advertising and doesn’t need to advertise are Ron Gray and senior applications scientist Dr. Daniel Burnett with Surface Measurement Systems.