More hours of daylight, temperatures that hit above the 60 degree mark, a few brave flowers trying to poke out of the ground — these wonderful things can only mean that spring is here!

As a kid I enjoyed getting a new spring dress with lots of ruffles and an obnoxiously loud floral print. And I looked forward to my mom (I mean the Easter Bunny) hiding dyed eggs and candy around the house for me to find.

Now, while I certainly still enjoy a new spring dress (with far fewer ruffles) and baskets full of candy, I appreciate spring more for the other benefits it brings. After what is often a long and bleak winter, spring is all about a new, fresh start. All of a sudden, it is brighter and livelier. People have a new bounce to their step. We see growth all around us and feel ready to take on new challenges .

In the spirit of all that is spring-like and new, we can also look ahead to NPE2009 in just a few short months. NPE2009 fully embodies a breath of fresh air, a new beginning and opportunities for growth. One big thing that’s new this time around? Seven conferences and educational programs that are co-locating with NPE for the first time. Together, this will be the most comprehensive education line-up in the global plastics industry, offering rich content to help your business bloom again.

All sessions from all of these conferences have now been added to one educational search feature on the NPE Web site, making it easy to search for the specific topics you need to grow your business. You can search for a particular session by key word, conference, track, speaker or date.

Even better, when you use NPE’s MyShow Plannerand search for a key word, you will not only find the exhibitors relevant to your search, but the educational offerings from all the co-located conferences related to that term. NPE makes it easy to learn about a new technology, product or service in a technical presentation and then see it on the show floor. For example, when I plugged in the word “bioplastics,” I not only saw 15 exhibitors appear in my results, but I also saw that there are currently seven different education sessions specifically on bioplastics in both SPI’s “Business of Plastics” conference and SPE’s ANTEC — two more events co-located at NPE2009. Check it out for yourself with the topics you want to focus on.

I think we are all ready for spring this year, and more importantly: while spring does come once a year, NPE only comes once every three years. Let’s put winter behind us and hop to it!