On Day 2 of NPE2015, don’t be surprised to see a lot of green shirts hurrying around the show floor. The people wearing them will be running in The
Plastics Race^TM, a fun and exciting event with a down-to-earth purpose. 

The high-profile race is expected to draw several hundred Race participants and involve the support of up to 100 of the show’s near-2,000 exhibitors, whose booths will serve as waypoint destinations for the “racers” during the event.

As part of SPE’s “Next Generation” initiative, The Plastics Race is just one of an ongoing series of programs and activities designed to attract qualified students and young professionals to careers in the plastics industry.

Dr. Jaime Gómez, SPE’s Vice President of Communications and Secretary explains, “Like any organization, the Society of Plastics Engineers needs a constant influx of young and enthusiastic professionals to replace the ranks of our more senior members as they approach retirement. Our Next Generation initiative is geared to help us sustain our numbers and even grow our ranks.”

Unlike last year’s race (at ANTEC^® Las Vegas), where race teams ventured up the Vegas Strip to solve dozens of plastics-related riddles, this year’s Plastics Race has been completely re-formatted to be run on the show floor at NPE2015, throughout its expansive Orlando County Convention Center venue. 

At NPE2015, The Plastics Race will take the form of an app-driven, smart-phone-based question hunt in which soon-to-graduate engineering students and talented young plastics professionals compete for nearly $12,000 in prizes by answering questions they can only access by visiting exhibiting sponsors’ booths.

Each four-person team will plot its own course from one sponsor location to the next. At each waypoint they will use their smart phones to scan a QR code prominently displayed in the sponsor’s booth, verifying their visit. They then select a category (e.g., polymer science, processing, materials, equipment, etc.) and difficulty (easy, medium, or hard) to reveal the question to be posed.

If exhibiting sponsors wish to personally engage race participants, they may choose to pose a separate “Exhibitor Bonus” question about their company, its markets, technologies, products, or services, prompting the racers’ inquiry and discussion.

Through each team’s smart phone app, booths visited and answers submitted will be monitored at “Race Control,” The Plastics Race’s on-site nerve center. At the completion of the race, points will be totaled, winners determined, and prizes awarded at a reception following the race. 

Gómez explains, “While only one team can win first place, everyone wins by participating in The Plastics Race. All participants win by having the opportunity to meet people, make new contacts, expand their knowledge, cultivate existing connections, network with associates, uncover employment possibilities, discover new companies, and learn about many of the new and existing products and technologies on display at NPE2015.

“And exhibiting sponsors win as well, whether they are new to the industry or a well-established name, whether their booths are large or small, or whether they’re in a prime location or ‘far off the beaten track.’ By actively funneling dozens and dozens of racers to their booths over the six-hour duration of the race, all 100 exhibiting sponsors will ‘stand out from the crowd’ at NPE as they stir curiosity and draw the attention of nearby show-goers, while demonstrating their endorsement of SPE and the upcoming generation of plastics industry professionals that its programs and activities are designed to support.”

For more information on how to join the 2015 Plastics Race, whether as a race participant or exhibiting sponsor (or to read more about last year’s race), visit www.4spe.org/antec/tpr.