Hey Sourdough,
I was there as Al and Lawrence were there, too.
And the most important I have seen there was - of course - these both gentlemen! :-)
But I have seen some other quite good things, besides that what Lar has stated already when we have visited the AVESTA people - unfortunately without the blessed Chuck Meadows. I had amongst others a good talk with a gentleman coming from Montreal Canada and who was the president of a rather small company named 123.certification.com, see also
http://www.123certification.com. He has invented a simulation program or software respectively, making it possible to manually "weld" without really welding. It was truly impressive and the presentation looked quite good, but even no real arc was ignited.
I am honest, I have stated particularly this here since I am curious how the "true" welders in the forum will react on this and perhaps may estimate what the future of this or similar tools might be.
In my eyes this - although high grade sophisticated - can never substitute the real welding training on site or in the shop, but can rather support the training in a very specific way. For instance to represent the very first steps in welding...
What is your opinion?
By the way, I was once again impressed by the AWS people. I could honestly not withstand and have purchased another book once again (my wife meanwhile doesn't say nothing no more!). They had a monitor at the booth where they have presented a video which must have been shown on history channel (Modern Marvels) in the US a time back and wich was entitled "Welding - Binding Ancient Technology to Modern Life".
My colleagues an I were fascinated due to the content and you know what? The AWS persons who have recognized this, have donated each one of us an appropriate DVD of this movie!
I must say this was an absolute great action. As I always say, the AWS is somewhat quite special - even excellent!
Best regards,
Stephan