The fifth Panel & Engineered Lumber International Conference & Expo (PELICE) is open for pre-registration. The event, which is hosted by Panel World magazine, will be held April 7-8 at the Omni Hotel at CNN Center in Atlanta, Georgia, USA.

Registration includes access to the eight keynote speeches and all of the technical sessions, as well as to the exhibitor floor in the Grand Ballroom North and the five food functions that are scheduled during the course of PELICE.

Attendees can register for the entire event, or either day of the event.

PELICE usually draws 400-500 industry personnel from the veneer, plywood, OSB, MDF, particleboard and engineered wood products sectors.

PELICE also announced it has completed its lineup of eight keynote speakers. “I can’t tell you how excited I am about the amazing range of talented industry personalities who have agreed to participate as leading speakers,” comments Rich Donnell, co-chairman of PELICE and editor-in-chief of Panel World magazine.

One of the keynote themes will be new plant construction, such as the new plywood mill Swanson Group is building in Springfield, Ore., following a fire in summer 2014. Steve Swanson, president and CEO of Swanson Group, will deliver one of the keynote talks on the evolvement of that project. The title of his talk is, “Why Build a Plywood Mill in 2016?”

Swanson comments, “The construction of Swanson’s Springfield mill will mark only the second plywood mill built over the past 40 years in the American West. Mills like these aren’t built from the ground-up anymore because of the immense costs. So why did Swanson elect to rebuild rather than renovate an existing structure? Primarily because the Springfield site presented a number of intangible benefits too valuable to ignore: immediate access to a quality timber source, a proven, experienced workforce well-versed with Swanson’s plywood manufacturing, and the opportunity to build one of the most advanced specialty plywood plants in North America.”

The plant is scheduled to begin stages of operation about the same time as PELICE in April.

Also on tap is Jonathan Martin, chairman and CEO of Martin Companies, LLC, which is building a new OSB plant in Corrigan, Texas, known as Corrigan OSB, LLC, and which Martin will address with his talk entitled “In Pursuit of Perfect.” Martin comments, “As Martco embarked on the design and construction of its newest OSB plant, their 34-year history of being in the structural panel business was relied on to select the site, the engineers, the equipment and the design.” Martin says the criteria included a priority on safety, health and environmental; facility aesthetics for employees; long-term “lowest possible product cost” to compete in a commodity business; proven equipment, reliable suppliers and contractor and design engineers.

Another new plywood plant starting up late this spring is Winston Plywood & Veneer in Louisville, Miss., and one of the keynoters will be Kurt Liebich, president and CEO of RedBuilt and New Wood Resources. And Luis Tejado, president of Blue Drop, will address the development of the new Proteak MDF plant in combination with modern forestry programs in Mexico.

Other keynoters include Brian Carlson, president, Huber Engineered Woods; and Jackson Morrill, president, Composite Panel Assn.

Also, Rodney Schwartz, vice president of sales, B&W MEGTEC, will address air emission control technologies. B&W MEGTEC is designing and manufacturing environmental equipment for emissions abatement at the new Corrigan OSB plant including venturi scrubbers, separators and regenerative thermal oxidizer (RTO) systems for two complete dryer lines.

Completing the keynoters lineup is Dr. George Goroyias, senior principal at Pöyry Management Consulting, who will address “Dynamics, Trends and Outlook for the Global Particleboard and MDF Sectors.”

Goroyias comments, “During the past decade, the global particleboard and MDF sectors have grown, but regional dynamics have changed—traditional markets have faced challenges and emerging regions have strengthened their positions.”

Technical sessions will cover a range of topics such as Air Quality Hot Topics Affecting Panel Facilities; Air Compliance Auditing Tips for Panel Facilities; Technological Advances and Improvements in Wood Adhesives and Adhesion; Optimizing Resin, Wax and Release Agent Effectiveness; An Overview of the Panel Industry in China; Customized OSB for Specific Applications; Emerging Trends in Technology Solutions for Improving Operational Performance; Thermal Oil Hazards: Risk Identification and Prevention; Mitigating Risk – Advanced Detection Technologies; Capitalizing on New Veneer Lathe and Dryer Technologies; How to Reduce Risks of Combustible Dust: New Standards, New Technologies.