The NAFEMS World Congress is an aspect of NAFEMS that I particularly enjoy and having missed the last one in 2015 due to ill health, I am counting down the days to NWC17. For this event, NAFEMS has been giving specific thought to the benefits that delegates take away; above and beyond the obvious opportunities to hear presentations from world class analysis experts, meet all the vendors in one location, experience the range of applications and industries where simulation is being used and lots of networking.

There are some big questions bouncing around the simulation world, both within NAFEMS working and steering groups and in the wider simulation community so I have spent a very interesting and enjoyable time speaking with a number of experts within NAFEMS and several of the keynote speakers for NWC17 to get their views on these topics. The material here has been distilled from a number of group discussions, interviews and written responses and captures the opinions and thoughts of some of the prominent activists in the simulation community, who will be at NWC17. The keynote presentations and several discussion sessions during the conference will further explore these themes and everyone is encouraged to consider the issues.