he Final Planning for APEC 2018 is well underway.  The Call-for-Papers closed in July with a near-record 1,167 digests submitted. Now the committee and over 100 volunteers have the task of peer-reviewing all the digests in preparation for the mid-year program meeting in October. At that time, the tough task will be to select the top 500+ papers for inclusion in the APEC 2018 Program.

By early September, all the submissions of proposals for both the very popular Industry Sessions as well as the highly-informative Professional Education Seminars will be reviewed for consideration in the Program. The Industry Session tracks will run in parallel with the Technical Sessions and are expected to be as popular as ever.

In 2017, over 2,000 APEC attendees arrived early to take advantage of the weekend and Monday morning Professional Education Seminars. The committee is planning a repeat of this attendance in 2018.

Exhibit reservations for APEC 2018 have hit an all-time high with 257 exhibitors and 42,000 square feet of exhibit space. A very limited number of spaces remain, far exceeded by the number of companies on the waiting list.

We are excited to announce the brand-new APEC Conference website.  The new website not only has a fresh look but it is designed to allow easy navigation to find the information you are looking for. Take a few minutes to go the site, www.apec-conf.org and look around.

Registration opens October 16th.  In addition to making your registration reservations to attend, you will also be able to book your hotel accommodations. As usual, APEC has secured blocks of rooms at the hotels close to the convention center.  Make sure to book your room early, as these rooms will sell out long before next March.

The entire APEC Conference Committee is excited about bringing our "premier global event in applied power electronics" to San Antonio, Texas, March 4-8.

Provided by Greg Evans, APEC 2017 Publicity Chair

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