The Mirror Tech Days Conference was initiated 6 years ago by NASA Marshall Space Flight Center. Each year the conference has grown. The conference invites Government vendors, contractors and grantees to briefly make engineering/scientific presentations on their work in optics. Government organizations provide the Conference Program Chairs, organize the agenda and extend invitations to vendors, contractors and grantees.
The purpose of the Mirror Tech Days Conference (MTDC) is to publicly summarize work being done by Government vendors under contract or SBIR recipients in the area of mirror technology development. Mirror Tech Days serves several functions.
MTDC acts like a public peer review of how each vendor is spending the taxpayer's money.
MTDC informs other governmental organizations and contractors of what work is being supported by the taxpayer such that they might be able to take advantage of this work or avoid duplicate funding of similar activities.
MTDC provides a networking opportunity for vendors, contractors and government.
Introduction
Mirror Tech Days-Albuquerque was held September 18-20 at the Kirtland AFB Conference Center. The New Mexico Optics Industry Association (NMOIA) was the Managing Sponsor for this conference and the International Society for Industrial Engineers (SPIE) was the co-sponsor. As such, NMOIA recruited sponsors and exhibits, handled logistics and arrangements and on-site registrations, onsite support, welcoming reception, coordinated lodging, web information and tours of local optics companies. SPIE organized the attendee registration and provided web information. .
Government Sponsors and Program Chairs
Mirror Tech Days 2006 is a jointly organized by multiple Government agencies. This year's Program Chairs and Organizing Committee are:
Dr. Brett de Blonk, U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory, Space Vehicles Directorate
Lt. Katy Boehme, USN, National Reconnaissance Office
Dr. David Content, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center
Dr. Doug Deason, U.S. Army Space & Missile Defense Command
Dr. Bianca E. N. Keeler, Sandia National Laboratory
Dr. B. Martin Levine, Jet Propulsion Laboratory
Dr. Larry Matson, U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory, Material Directorate
Dr. H. Philip Stahl, NASA Marshall Space Flight Center
Agenda
Mirror Tech Days 2006 was organized into 9 technical tracks and 71 technical papers were presented. Exhibits
16 Companies and Organizations exhibited at Mirror Tech Days.
Exhibiting companies were: 4D Technology, Applied Technologies Associates, Atlantic International Imaging, Bennett Optical Research, Central New Mexico Community College, CoorsTek, CVI Laser, InSync Optics, Kentek, Optical Surface Tech, Third Wave Systems, SEO Precision, Verge Venture Capital, WaveFront Sciences and Zygo.
Sponsors
Sponsors were: The City of Albuquerque-Economic Development Department, CVI Laser, Verge Venture Capital, and Technology Venture Corporation.
In-kind sponsors were: Albuquerque Economic Development and State of New Mexico Economic Development Department.
Attendance
Paid attendance was 150 people. 8 additional sponsors, exhibitors or guests were provided with complimentary attendance and 8 additional AFRL-OC people were provided with complimentary attendance to hear selected presentations.
Post Conference Survey Results
All conference attendees were invited to participate in a web-based, post-conference survey, 41 attendees responded. Highlights of the survey are:
Mirror Tech Days offered 71 technical papers organized into 9 segments. The Materials and SiC segments were the most popular with 77% and 72% rating the segments as excellent or good, respectively. The MEMS/Nano segment was the least popular with 42% rating the segment as excellent or good.
85% of respondents rated Mirror Tech Days conference as excellent or good. 68% strongly agree or agree that Mirror Tech Days should remain a separate conference. Also, 94% of respondents would like to have the 2007 conference held in Albuquerque.
Publicity
Ms. Sherry Robinson, freelance writer and former business editor of the Albuquerque Tribune, was hired to prepare and distribute Mirror Tech Days Publicity.
Pre-conference press releases were issued on August 9 to the local and national media. SPIE provided a list of 150 technical publication editors and the press release was sent to them. We did not ask registrants how they heard about the conference. We estimate that 10-15 people attended as a result of the press releases.
During the Conference Ms. Robinson interviewed exhibiting companies with innovative and interesting technologies. She then prepared and articled that is scheduled for publication in the Innovation magazine, published to 13,500 recipients, by the Technology Ventures Corporation. Dr. Phil Stahl sent out Conference invitation letters and worked with the other Government organizations to expand the invitation list, see Attachment F.
NMOIA also prepared and sent out a brochure to recruit Sponsors and Exhibitors. References:
Additional information about Mirror Tech Days Conference can be found at: