LEOMA and the U.S. Laser Industry

The U.S. laser industry has historically been very competitive. By the early 1980s, several issues were emerging that underlined the need for a trade association among U.S. laser manufacturers. Industry leaders were mulling over the logistics of launching some sort of trade association. LEOMA's board was actively seeking new projects that would make the association more attractive, both to existing members whose loyalty was wavering and to potential new members. LEOMA did indeed turn out to be a solution in search of a problem. LEOMA was created to address two very specific problems: export controls and conference proliferation. Shortly after its founding, the association identified a third issue, international standards. LEOMA was quite successful in dealing with export controls and international standards and, to be fair, at least partially successful in dealing with conference proliferation.