Conferences

IEEE-IAS/ACA Cement Conference 2025 - Gallery

Gallery from the 67th annual IEEE-IAS/ACA Cement Conference 2025

The 67th annual IEEE-IAS/ACA Cement Conference 2025 took place on 4 - 8 May 2025 in Birmingham, Alabama.

Global CemProducer Conference - Call for papers

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2nd Global CemProducer Conference & Exhibition on cement and clinker trade, process optimisation and maintenance

'State-of the-art process optimisation for future-proof cement production'

Dates and location to be confirmed

#CemProducer

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Call for Papers

This is the call for papers for the Global CemProducer Conference. The Conference will concentrate on the specific topics given in the list of topics below. The conference organisers are interested to hear from companies or individuals who are interested in presenting a first class paper at the Global CemProducer Conference. All presentations will be 20 minutes in length, with an additional 10 minutes at the end of each presentation for questions and discussions. All presenters should use PowerPoint software.

Conference topics: Trade & Technology; Transport & logistics; Industry 4.0; Process optimisation and control; Sensors; Fuels; WHR; Captive power generation; Energy storage; Electrical energy efficiency; Environmental technology; Refractories; Wear and maintenance; and Project management & finance

Following delegate feedback, equipment manufacturers and service providers wishing to speak are requested to partner with a cement producer employee (eg Heidelberg Materials, Holcim, Cemex, Ash Grove, Anhui Conch, Votorantim, Dangote etc) to author their paper in which case the cement producer must be one of the named authors on the paper.

Presenters must register for the conference. Confirmed cement-producer-speakers can register for the conference at no cost.

In the first instance, all prospective presenters should contact the conference convenor, Dr Robert McCaffrey, with a title and author list , as soon as possible, to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. All confirmed presenters should then closely follow the instructions for presenters.

Authors should either download the conference presentation template by clicking here or should add the conference logo below to each of their own slides.

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The deadline for receipt of the 100-word biography and finalised PowerPoint file for the Global CemProducer Conference proceedings volume will be confirmed in due course.

Thank you for your efforts!

Tips for speakers

We’ve had the pleasure of sitting through literally thousands of presentations over the years. In that time, we have seen some really terrific presentations, where the audience was literally on the edge of its seat, and where listeners waited for every utterance as if their lives depended upon it. We have also heard a few presentations that were not so good. We thought we would take the opportunity to give a few hints to potential speakers...

What not to do...

Don’t give an advertisement. The audience didn’t pay to come to the conference to listen to you trying to sell them something. They really hate this (we know, they tell us). Tell the audience something useful that they can take home. In fact, if you give them something useful and interesting, then the audience will forgive many other failings - but they won’t forgive you trying to sell them something for 25 minutes (and they won’t forget it either). Keep your company information to ONE slide.

Don’t read from a script, even if you think you need to. One of the best presentations we ever saw started as a deadly-dull script-based talk. Half way through, the presenter lost his place and did the rest from memory - it was excellent (he went on to win the best presentation prize...).

Don’t stand too close to the microphone: think of your listeners. You wouldn’t shout in their ears... and standing at sensible distance from the mike also avoids ‘popping,’ where a pronounced ‘p’ can make an amplified booming sound.

Don’t have too many slides: We once saw a presenter try to get through 125 slides in 25 minutes (that’s 12 seconds per slide). 25 slides should be your absolute maximum.

Don’t try to be too clever. If you get lost in your own powerpoint, you will have lost your audience a long time ago.

Don’t talk too fast, especially if you have a strong accent. This applies to native-English speakers as well!

Never ask for questions in the middle or at the end: Questions in the middle break up the flow of your talk. Even if you have given a good talk and you ask for questions at the end, you will inevitably be confronted by an embarrassing silence. At the end, simply say “Thank you very much.” There will be applause: Then the chairman will ask for questions. Simple.

Don’t try to get too much information across: If you can only get the audience to take home three pieces of information (which might still be asking too much) consider which three are most important (to you*)...

That thing about ‘tell them what you are going to tell them, tell them, and then tell them what you’ve told them’? Don’t bother. Please just spend your time telling us your interesting story - we don't need to be told it three times. Also, you might need to know the underlying structure of your talk, but we probably do not.

What to do...

Follow the instructions for authors - supply all the materials and hit all the deadlines (the conference convenor/moderator is your friend... don’t rile him!)

When you get to the conference, check to make sure that your presentation runs as you expect it to (including any movies).

Familiarise yourself with the lectern/computer/microphone/laser pointer etc well before your alloted presentation time. On the day, don’t blame anyone else if you didn’t do your homework!

Tell a story. All good presentations have a start, a middle and an end. Often it might be ‘We had a problem, this is what we did to fix it and this is how it all turned out.’ Or it might be ‘The industry is in this situation, we’ve invented machine X, this is how it can benefit you.’ Or 'This is the way the industry was, these are the current trends and this is what the industry will look like in X years.' A good talk needs a structure. Take the audience on a journey - tell us a story.

Use pictures or video to help tell your story (but make sure that you have supplied your video in a format that can be used by the conference computers).

Think about your audience at all times: What will make them listen to you and take on board what you are telling them?

Content is king: *Think about what the audience will find most useful as a take-home as well.

Make all slides readable from the back: I’ve lost count of the number of times I’ve heard “You might not be able to read this, but...” If in doubt, leave it out. Better still, make graphs or infographics out of your tables of numbers. Tables of numbers in a presentation are a waste of space and a wasted opportunity.

Open your mouth to let the words come out. Use your voice carefully: not too high or too low, not too fast or too slow: speak carefully and be aware as well of the power of silence.

Use body language if required: connect with your audience (for example by trying to look into the eyes of every one of your listeners at least once during the presentation). Wandering about will distract your audience from your message. Never walk down the central aisle to speak from behind the front-most members of the audience - it is creepy!

Smile: the audience wants you to succeed!

If you follow our tips, you will be in with a chance of winning the ‘Best Presentation Award.’

Good luck!

IEEE-IAS/ACA Cement Conference

The IEEE-IAS/ACA Cement Conference is the world's largest event for the cement industry, taking place annually in spring in the US (and ocassionally in Canada). Here Global Cement gives the latest informatoin on the up-coming event, and a review of previous events.

IEEE-IAS-ACA logo 2026

68th IEEE-IAS/ACA 2026 - Fort Lauderdale, Florida

The 68th annual IEEE-IAS/ACA Cement Conference will take place in Fort Lauderdale, Florida on 26 - 29 April 2026.

For the latest information on the event visit: www.cementconference.org

Global Cement Magazine will exhibit in Fort Lauderdale on stand 416 - please come and visit!

67th IEEE-IAS/PCA 2025 - Birmingham, Alabama

The 67th IEEE-IAS/PCA Cement Technical Conference took place in Birmingham, Alabama, USA in May 2025

View Robert McCaffrey's Presentation on 'The US cement industry in the context of the entire hisory of the universe' on YouTube

Click on the link below to download the PDF file of the presentation.

Presentation 2025 >

View the image gallery from the 67th annual IEEE-IAS/ACA Cement Conference 2025

66th IEEE-IAS/PCA 2024 - Denver, Colorado

The 66th IEEE-IAS/PCA Cement Conference took place in Denver, Colorado.

View the video of Rob McCaffrey's presentation on YouTube, on how the global cement industry will look in 2050, given at the 66th IEEE-IAS/PCA Cement Technical Conference, Denver, Colorado, USA on 30 April 2024

65th IEEE-IAS/PCA 2023 - Dallas, Texas

The 65th IEEE-IAS/PCA Cement Conference took place 23-27 April 2023 in Dallas, Texas.

64th IEEE-IAS/PCA 2022 - Las Vegas, Nevada

The 64th IEEE-IAS/PCA Cement Conference took place 1-5 May 2022 in Las Vegas, Nevada, after a two year delay due to Covid. Robert McCaffrey of Global Cement gave a keynote presentation on 'Secret changes in the cement industry.'

62nd IEEE-IAS/PCA (2020), 63rd IEEE-IAS/PCA (2021) - Digital events due to Covid

61st IEEE-IAS/PCA 2019 - St Louis, Missouri

Robert McCaffrey, the editorial director of Global Cement, presented ‘The global cement industry in 2050’ at the 61st IEEE-IAS/PCA Cement Technical Conference 2019 taking place at St Louis in Missouri. The presentation used data from a variety of sources to explore how the cement and concrete industries could look in 2050 including shifts in societies, demographics, technologies, business and the environment.
For more information about the presentation and to download a copy visit: www.globalcement.com/reports/cement-2050

60th IEEE-IAS/PCA 2018 - Nashville, Tennessee

The 60th IEEE-IAS/PCA Cement Conference took place in Nashville, Tennessee - see Global Cement's video review on YouTube. Read the full conference review here.

59th IEEE-IAS/PCA 2017 - Calgary, Canada

Ed Sullivan, the Portland Cement Association’s (PCA) chief economist, gave an economic forecast for US cement consumption.

58th IEEE-IAS/PCA 2017 - Grapevine, Texas

The 58th annual IEEE-IAS/PCA Cement Industry Technical Conference took place on 15 - 19 May 2016 at the Gaylord Texan Resort and Convention Center in Grapevine, Texas.

57th IEEE-IAS/PCA 2015 - Toronto, Canada

The 57th IEEE-IAS/PCA 2015 Cement Industry Technical Conference took place from 26 – 30 April 2015 at the Sheraton Centre Toronto Hotel in Toronto, Canada.

56th IEEE-IAS/PCA 2014 - Washington DC, USA

The 56th IEEE-IAS/PCA Cement Industry Technical Conference took place in Washington, DC from 13 - 17 April 2014 and featured a tour of the Martinsburg Cement Plant owned by Essroc.

55th IEEE-IAS/PCA 2013 - Orlando, Florida

The 55th annual IEEE-IAS/PCA Cement Industry Technical Conference was held at the Walt Disney World Swan and Dolphin Resort in Orlando, Florida, USA on 14 - 18 April 2013. The event attracted a total of 916 delegates from across the US and further afield who heard a total of 45 high-quality presentations and were able to visit 165 different exhibitors.