Fiber lasers and their potential in commercial, industrial, and medical markets will be
the focus of several talks at the annual Laser and Photonics Marketplace Seminar, to be
held January 23, 2006, at the Fairmont Hotel in San Jose, CA, in conjunction with
Photonics West. In addition to the keynote address, "Value added manufacturing in the
laser industry," to be given by Phillip Meredith, general manager of JDS Uniphase
Laser Products (San Jose, CA), the first half of the seminar will feature detailed
analyses of sales and technology trends in the global laser market, semiconductor laser
market, industrial laser market, and medical market.

The afternoon will be devoted to the Fiber Laser Markets Forum, chaired by Andrew
Brown, director of business development at Aculight (Bothell, WA). The forum will
bring together industry experts to present a series of perspectives on the current and
future market potential of fiber lasers. Presentations will include fiber laser technology
review by Andy Held, VP of marketing, Nufern; markets and applications for low-
power fiber lasers by Stuart Woods, VP of business development, Southampton
Photonics; markets and applications for high-power fiber lasers by Bill Shiner, director,
industrial market development, IPG Photonics Corp.; markets and applications for
single frequency fiber lasers by Pat Edsell, president and CEO, NP Photonics; and
government markets and applications for fiber lasers by Don D. Seeley, Army
representative, High Energy Laser Joint Technology Office, Space and Missile
Defense Command, U.S. Army. For more information, visit
www.marketplaceseminar.com.

ILS Publisher/Editor-in-Chief, David Belforte, will speak on the world markets for
industrial lasers and applications. He says that good news concerning activity in the
global industrial laser market comes from the financial reports of those public
companies that are among the leaders in supplying lasers and systems for
manufacturing applications. Sales activity in all of the major producing and using
nations has exceeded 2004 forecasts and expectations that are growth for 2005 could be
about 2 percent higher than anticipated.

Even sluggish economies in Europe (machine tool sales up 3 percent) and the U.S.
(machine tool sales up 10 percent) saw substantive growth in both high- and low-power
laser system sales. The key indicator, laser sheet metal cutting systems sold into the
fabricated metal products market, is up globally. This product represents more than
one-third of the total revenues for laser systems, so its high is a good indicator that
2005 will be a good year for activity in this market.

Fri Dec 09 09:17:00 CST 2005