Russ Snyder, president and chairman of the 501F Users Group, called shortly after receiving last week’s CCJ ONsite to update the editors on some of the high-profile events the organization’s board of directors (sidebar) is planning for the 2016 conference at the La Cantera Hill Country Resort in San Antonio, next February 21 to 25. Highlights are below. Snyder said more details should be available by the end of September; stay tuned.

• Sunday, February 21: Annual users/vendors golf tournament, welcome reception to follow.

• Monday, February 22: Conference welcome and introductions, Vendorama, and vendor fair. Vendorama is expected to showcase up to 50 presentations, arranged in six parallel 30-min sessions, on topics requested by users and reviewed by the board of directors for meaningful and non-commercial content.

Vendor fair and concurrent reception following Vendorama will allow participation by up to about 100 suppliers of products and services for the 501F fleet.

• Tuesday afternoon, February 23: Alstom/PSM workshop featuring presentations on user-requested topics, evening social event to follow.

• Wednesday afternoon, February 24: Mitsubishi/Hitachi workshop featuring presentations on user-requested topics, evening social event to follow.

• Closed, user-only presentation/discussions are conducted during the remaining session time available. Recall that Siemens has announced it will not participate in 501F User Group meetings in 2016 and future years.

501F Users Group board of directors

Russ Snyder, Cleco Power LLC, president and chairman
Ivan Kush, Calpine Corp, secretary and vice chairman
Ray Martens, Iberdrola Renewables LLC, vice chairman
Carey Frost, Duke Energy Corp
Arlen Morris, Next Era Energy Inc, Florida Power & Light Co
Paul Tegen, Cogentrix Energy Power Management LLC
Paul Terry, Axiall Corp
Rene Villafuerte, Comego SA de CV