The Eastern Coatings Show was held November 17-19, 2021 at Harrah’s Resort in Atlantic City. Despite the challenges of hosting an event during the COVID-19 pandemic, all indications were that this biennial show met the expectations of attendees and exhibitors. The show’s organizers reported nearly 1,000 attendees.

“Post-pandemic attendance was extremely positive,” said Chris Mangano, president of the Eastern Coatings Federation. “Overwhelmingly people were very happy to be there and enjoyed the personal interactions.  In conversations with many people, all said they accomplished much more at this conference then they expected.  I would like to acknowledge Harrah’s as they were an exceptional partner throughout the process over the past year. I also would like to thank the whole board for their hard work. Carl Sullivan, our technical chairman did a great job. The quality of the technical papers was excellent and the keynotes were all homeruns.”

Sarah Eckersley, global director of R&D and TS&D for Coating Materials, Monomers & Plastics Additives at Dow Chemical kicked off the conference with her presentation “Sustainability in Coatings – By Accident or Design?”.
The Eastern Coatings Show also offered two prominent keynote presentations on Supply Chain Challenges. Attendees learned critical information on production, logistics, geo-politics and forecasts affecting the future of raw materials.

Michael Levely, the senior director responsible for Supply Chain and Customer Service for Dow’s North American Coatings and Performance Monomers business gave the keynote presentation on the first day of the show.

Dan Pickard, Partner at Wiley Law in Washington, DC, spoke on U.S. trade policies, tariffs and relevance of the Department of Commerce in his keynote presentation on the second day of the show.

Day two concluded with a networking forum, “Businesswomen in Paint and Coatings.”

Award Presentations
The Rick Mazzariello Lifetime Achievement Award was presented to Charles Shearer of Covestro.

Jacob Shevrin of Evonik won the Pflaumer Honors for Innovation Award for most outstanding paper. The Award, presented by Harley McNair, president of Pflaumer Brothers, was for Shevrin’s paper entitled, “Novel Hydrolytically Stable Silane Additives for Improving the Performance of Waterborne Acrylic Roof Coatings.”

The Pflaumer Honors for Innovation Award for outstanding paper went to Ingrid Meier of Evonik for her paper entitled, “Film Coalescence and Coalescing Surfactants: Mechanism of Action and Practical Application of These Unique Multifunctional Wetting Agents in Low-VOC Coatings.”

Shevrin, who won the Pflaumer Honors for Innovation Award for outstanding paper at the Fourth Biennial Eastern Coatings Show, received a $3,000 honorarium for this year’s award. The honorarium for outstanding paper to Ingrid Meier was $2,000.

The Eastern Coatings Show Technical Committee, headed by Carl Sullivan of Stanchem, reviewed nine finalist papers in selecting the award winners. Members of the Technical Committee include Charles Shearer of Covestro, Chuck Jones of BASF, Don Herr of Sartomer and Jerry Norton of SmithChem.

“These awards recognize a high level of innovation and technical contribution to our industry,” Sullivan said.  “And we congratulate this year’s winners on the excellence of their technical papers. Our criteria – what we look for in the papers we reviewed – includes innovation, professionalism, technology competence and preparation. This year’s  candidates for the Pflaumer Honors for Innovation Awards were exceptional. Looking forward to the sixth binnial ECS, we want to raise the level of participation by our colleges and universities in the award competition, and this is our goal. We want each department of chemistry and engineering at all schools along the East Coast to become involved in our industry and to promote the technology of coatings. Our industry needs to attract graduates from these schools, and we think the Pflaumer awards along with the honorariums will induce more students to participate in our next Biennial Eastern Coatings Show planned for 2023.”



Hosted by the Philadelphia Society for Coatings Technology, the New England Society for Coatings Technology and the Metropolitan New York Coatings Association, the Eastern Coatings Show is intended to offer educational and technical presentations to create an understanding of the theory, the science, the manufacturing and the marketing of coatings to highlight the improvement of coatings performance and functionality beyond traditional expectations. The Eastern Coatings Show was established in 2013 and the proceeds from the show go back to the three associations that organize the event.  It is through those organizations that scholarships are awarded yearly to incoming and current undergraduate students. The funds also go towards initiatives such as mentorship programs – all aimed at supporting the next generation and growth through education.