As many of the attendees to the EIMA Annual Meeting were aware, this year EIMA welcomed some special guests from Japan's EIFS industry to the EIMA Annual Meeting. As part of the meeting, EIFS representatives from the United States, Canada and Japan joined together for the North Pacific EIFS Conference on April 1 and 2.

Representatives to the conferece included EIMA representatives David Johnston and Bill Preston, Dryvit Systems Inc. for the United States; John Garbin, EIFS Council of Canada, for Canada, and Tadashi Abe, Msazumi Horiuchi, Shoji Igarashi, Shuji Ohasmi, Yu Sakaida, Takashi Sasaki, Hideki Shibaike, and Sigeru Wakana from the Exterior Insulation Promotion Council of Japan representing Japan.

Discussions revealed the challenges confronting EIFS in each nation. It was acknowledged that each nation can learn a great deal from each other.