2008 ABS Meeting Program

Thursday, November 6
9am - 5pm: ABS Board Meeting in a classroom at the Zoo's Education Center -- ABS members welcome as observers.
9am - 3pm: Self-guided Tours of Urban Gardens Featuring Bamboo

Friday, November 7
Registration at the Zoo's Education Center 8:00 – 9:30am

Friday Morning Session (Osher Hall in the Education Center)
9:00 – 9:15: Tom Chiosso – Welcome and overview of bamboo at the Zoo
9:15 – 9:45: Dr. Nabil Taha -- Bamboo Structural Engineering
9:45 -- 10:00: Kamesh Salam, the director of the Cane and Bamboo Technology Centre in India and President of the World Bamboo Organization  will announce the location of the next International Bamboo Conference.
10:00 -- 10:30:
10:30 – 11:15: Gib Cooper of Bamboo of the Americas project – Urban Chusquea collection in Quito, Ecuador

11:30 – 1:00: Lunch (included in registration fee)
12:15 – 1:00: Tour the Bamboos at the Zoo

Friday Afternoon Session (Osher Hall in the Education Center)
1:00 – 1:45pm: Wolfgang Eberts - Bamboo in Europe
1:45 – 2:30: Celina Llerena - Bamboo Architecture in Brazil
3:00 – 3:45: Gerard Minakawa – Large bamboo sculpture and furniture in the U.S. and Bolivia
3:45 – 4:30: Jimmy Triplett – Hanky-Panky in the Temperate Bamboos

5:00 – 6:00pm: Evening Reception and Poster session with the speakers (included with registration)

Saturday Morning Session (Osher Hall in the Education Center)
9:00 – 9:30 Jinhe Fu – New Uses For Bamboo
9:30 – 10:15: Hui Xue – Several lifetimes of bamboo ethnobotanical images from southwest China
10:30 – 11:30: Lynn Clark - American Bamboo News

11:30 – 1:00: Lunch (included in registration fee)

[Silent Auction: If held, will be ongoing Saturday AM, ending at 2:15pm]

Saturday Afternoon Events (Education Center)
1:00 – 2:00: American Bamboo Society General Membership Meeting
2:15 – 2:30: Announcement of Silent Auction winners (if held)
2:30 – 4:30: Live Bamboo Auction (begun as an online auction on October 19th)

7:00pm: San Francisco Bay Dinner Cruise aboard the Hornblower Empress (we have the whole vessel, which will hold 100 for dinner). We expect that tickets will sell out, so get on board ASAP!

Sunday, November 9
9am - 5pm: Tour to Bamboo Sourcery Nursery and Gardens (Sebastopol) via bus, 56 person capacity. Separate registration form is available via the registration page.


Workshops - ongoing during the following times in classrooms adjacent to the lecture hall:

Friday
8:00am – 11:30am: Alfonso and Rubi Rangel, Bamboo Objects. Craftspeople from Mexico who run workshops just to spread the bamboo gospel to as many people as possible. Their goal is to build simple objects to engage the imagination of as many people as possible.
1:00pm – 4:00pm: Martin Coto, Bamboo Furniture. Master craftsman from Costa Rica with 30 years experience. We have sponsored 5 workshops with Martin and every participant will attest to the great command he has over the material. Particularly interesting are the jigs and tools he puts together.

Saturday
9:00am -- 12:00pm: Bamboo 101 – members of NCC/ABS will demonstrate division, control, and answer questions about this special place where we can grow more species than anywhere else in the country.
1:00pm - 4:00pm: Bamboo craft/sculptureGerard Minakawa, Martin Coto, the Bamboosmiths, Kevin Rowell, Marisha Farnsworth

Announced Workshops, as yet Unscheduled:
Craig Calfee, bicycle designer/builder will show both his custom bamboo racing/mountain bikes as well as a very affordable system for local bike use that he set up in Ghana.  Of special interest are the joints he developed of natural fiber and epoxy which are by far the strongest joint ever done in bamboo.


Presenter Notes:

 

Tom Chiosso is the San Francisco Zoo's Superintendent of Grounds and is largely responsible for our great location for the meeting. He has made his interest in using bamboo in Zoo landscaping, both inside and outside of animal enclosures, a reality.

Dr. Nabil Taha, P.E. - President of Precision Structural Engineering, Inc.
Has done the structural design of more bamboo buildings than anyone in this country, Nabil will present his experiences. http://www.structure1.com/personnel.htm

Gib Cooper, Director of Bamboo of the Americas, will show the new Chusquea bamboo planted in a public park in Quito, Ecuador. Please read the article "Andean Bamboo Living Collections for Urban Ecuador".

Celina Llerena
has uploaded these videos from Brazil.

Gerard Minakawa
is a Bolivian-American-Japanese sculptor and furniture maker.

Dr. Jinhe Fu is the current International ABS Director and INBAR program manager. His website: http://www.geocities.com/zhuzi.geo/.

Hui Xue, using many of her father's images, will describe plants from Yunnan, China -- some of which are surprisingly cold-tolerant.

And Susanne Lucas (past President, ABS; Director, World Bamboo Organization) writes: I'm happy to say that my colleague, Kamesh Salam, the director of the Cane and Bamboo Technology Centre and President of the World Bamboo Organization, is coming to the meeting. His purpose is to announce the upcoming World Bamboo Conference to be held in Bangkok, Thailand in September 2009. The support, activities and enthusiasm in Southeast Asia brings the WBC to Thailand. We have the governmentt of Thailand, UNIDO and Kasetsart University as co-sponsors and supporters.