Photonics West 2007 -- with its sold-out exhibition, 3000 presentations, 70 courses and record attendance -- surpassed expectations and indicated an upbeat optics and photonics industry, event organizer SPIE said. Photonics West concluded last Thursday and maintained its position as the largest optics and photonics exhibit in the US and the largest photonics technology conference anywhere in the world, said SPIE, the International Society for Optical Engineering. SPIE said more than 17,000 people attended the six-day event that also included plenary talks, market seminars, technology road-mapping workshops, standards group meetings, technical poster sessions and dozens of receptions hosted by industry leaders and government agencies. More than 17,000 people attended Photonics West 2007 in San Jose, Calif., from Jan. 20-25. "This year Photonics West set a new high-water mark in terms of the quality of the conference and the quantity of presentations, exhibitors, conference attendees and exhibition visitors," said Janice Walker, director of events at SPIE. "This translates into more scientific breakthroughs, more new products, more new jobs and more buyers than ever before. The record-setting numbers, along with the recent billion-dollar IPO by one of our corporate members, IPG Photonics, sets a very optimistic tone for the entire industry." SPIE technical conferences bring engineers and scientists together to network and learn what's new in optics, photonics and imaging technologies used in biomedicine, communications, solid-state lighting and other application areas. This interdisciplinary dialogue is helpful to people like Patricia Marafino, an optical engineer with Kaiser Electronics, who said, "This gives us a chance to find the latest laser technology and see what others are doing in this area. Photonics West is the place to do that." SPIE said the mood within the exhibition halls was "more exciting than any time since 2000." (See Exhibitors Positive About Photonics West 2007) "As a result of the great product offerings and great audience at Photonics West, we talked to more potential customers than ever before," said Greg Hollows, senior application engineer with Edmund Optics. "Photonics West is the number-one event in our industry. Here people can see the leading edge of science, see the technology that enables new applications and see basically the entire industry in a few days. It's terrific." For more information, visit: www.spie.org/events/pw More Photonics West News and Photo Gallery