The wagons roll into Vienna this month to set up the stalls and halls at the Austria Centre for the "Greatest PM Show on Earth" - the 2004 World Congress and Exhibition.

This latest in the biennial series of World Congresses is a first for Austria and provides an especial focus for PM people based in the Eastern European new member countries of the European Union. It is six years since a World Congress was last held in Europe.

But interest is strong too from the US and Asia. European, US and Asian companies are among entrants in the prestigious EPMA Innovation Awards, sponsored this year by Metal Powder Report, in categories for Components, Materials and Production Equipment as well as the International section. They will be presented at the EPMA Awards Lunch on Tuesday, 19 October.

As ever, the event offers a packed technical programme over the four-day event offering some 500 papers and posters covering the spectrum of PM activity across the globe.

After the opening ceremony and a welcome from Congress Chairman Peter Mitterbauer, President of the Miba Group, delegates will hear a presentation from Austria's Federal Minister for Economic Affairs and Labour, Dr Martin Bartenstein, on business and economics in Austria.

He will be followed to the podium by the EPMA's Cesar Molins, the JPMA's Yoshio Hirano and the MPIF's David Schaeffer, who will review PM activities in Europe, Asia and the US respectively.

A new feature of this year's event will be the End-User Day on 21 October. The morning session - The end-user meets PM - will provide a chance for end-users to learn about the latest innovations and potential of PM technologies. In the afternoon a reciprocal session - PM meets the end-user - will feature plenary lectures by invited experts from outside the PM industry presenting their views on developments in their respective industries and outline future opportunities for PM.

Most importantly for the long-term interests of the industry, the Vienna Congress will also see the launch of the PM Properties Global database, the fruit of two years' hard work and complex - at times delicate - negotiation between the European Powder Metallurgy Association and their US and Japanese counterparts. The database represents a real step forward on the road towards standardisation across the global PM industry and will enable design engineers to assess, almost at a glance, the suitability of PM materials for particular configurations and designs. The hope is that by easing user access to otherwise sometimes confusing data, powder metallurgy will move up the order of consideration when component design answers are being sought in the competitive and rapidly changing automotive and other high-tech industries.

The Congress will be rounded off with a Gala Dinner at Vienna City Hall. Delegates will be able to find less formal relaxation at the many coffee house and bars in the maze of streets near St Stephen's cathedral. But for those accompanying delegates a diverse programme of trips in and around the ancient capital can include a morning tour of the town, followed by a trip to the Vienna Woods, the country playground for city dwellers in the afternoon. Mozart's connections with Vienna are explored in Mozart's Vienna and a Panorama Tour is another option.

And for those delegates still truly wedded to their work after four days of intensive discussion, post-Congress tours can be taken on Friday 22 October to the Fiat powertrain plant at Aspern, the Battenfeld moulding plant at Kottingbrun or the Böhlerit tungsten carbide plant in Kapfenberg, before heading for the airport and a weekend at home.