For the first time, the International Paper Physics Conference and the International Paper and Coating Chemistry Symposium were held at the same time, in the same location and with a coordinated programme. Paper Conferences 2012 in Stockholm was a resounding success, attracting more than 400 participants from 24 different countries, and exceeding all expectations of the organisers, Innventia and the Royal Institute of Technology. By the time the final speaker left the podium on Thursday afternoon, a total of 138 presentations, together with several poster presentations, had been given during four days of parallel sessions at Stockholm’s Clarion Hotel Sign.

“A joint event has meant greater exposure,” explains Marco Lucisano, chairman of the organising committee. “We were able to attract more researchers than if we had held the conferences separately. It has also meant greater exposure for the participants, who have had access to more talks and other participants. We’re particularly pleased to note that nearly 40 percent of the participants were industry representatives. This shows that the content of the conferences is relevant in terms of meeting both current and future industrial challenges.”

Prizes were awarded for the best poster presentations at the conference dinner, held at Winterviken on 13 June. The paper physics award went to Paul-Philipp Post, Christian Berger, Klaus Villforth, Heinz-Joachim Shaffrath and Samuel Schabel for the poster ”Optical measurement of deformation of paper under tensile load”, while the paper chemistry award was presented to Florian Loyal, Melanie Gattermayer and Markus Biesalski, for the poster ”Mussel-inspired polymers for papermaking and functionalization”. Franz Schmied received the prestigious Best Presentation Award for his talk “A model approach to understand the fiber – fiber bond”, as voted for by participants at the International Paper Physics Conference 2011 in Graz.