2008 Winter Symposium: Training Session Review

Our 'Model, Measure, Manufacture theme was continued through our training program. We had three courses, one on each topic, and we are happy to report that this was the best attended traning program we have ever had, with over 20 people attending each class. Particular thanks go to Earl Geddes, our education chair for all his efforts in setting up these programs.

Model: First up was Peter Larsen's half-day course on "Practical Aspects of Loudspeaker Design". This course was oversubscribed last year, so we repeated it this year and it was again fully booked! In this class, Peter shared his many years of loudspeaker design knowledge in a format which was easily understandable for those new to loudspeaker design. Despite the content being suitable for the novice loudspeaker designer, the course also received rave reviews from many with several decades of loudspeaker design experience.

Measure: Christopher J. Struck's course "Electroacoustic Measurement" explained the fundamentals of acoustic measurement, combining the principles and background of electroacoustic measurement with practical information on how to make good loudspeaker measurements. Feedback on this course was also good, with the only criticism being that there was too much information crammed into a 4 hour session. We are considering re-running this course next year, possibly as a full day course, and would love to hear your thoughts on this. Would you like tos ee this as a full day course? Would you or your colleagues attend? Please email me at management @ almainternational.org (remove spaces) to let me know.

Manufacture: A new course on "Adhesives:  Selection and Application for Loudspeaker Assembly", presented by Dan Alb of Adhesive Systems rounded out our program. This course covered general background on adhesives, different types of adhesives, characteristics of different adhesives, surface considerations (including surface preparation) and application methods. Again, this course proved popular, and the interest was confirmed by ALMA's education chair who dropped in on the course to evaluate the presenter, and ended up staying for most of the class because he found it so informative!

Training notes are only available to class attendees, and were handed out in the class. If you attended the Adhesives class and did not receive a copy of the notes from Dan after the event, then please contact me and I will arrange for a copy to be sent to you.

Next year's training
Tell me what you want! We have secured from extra training space for next year, and our goal is to present a training program that delivers what the industry needs! Let me know what topics you want to see on the training program! If you have expertise in a particular aspect of the loudspeaker industry, and could teach a training class, I'd also like to hear from you.

More from the ALMA 2008 Symposium: