SPIE Photonics West, the world’s largest photonics and laser event, features 4400 paper, 18 plenary presentations, 40 technical events and 70 courses. Industry events will include panels on silicon photonics and photonic integrated circuits, emerging growth opportunities in sustainable technology and executive perspectives on the world of optics and photonics, among others. See 1300 companies at the Photonics West 2013 Exhibition, the marketplace for the photonics and laser industry.

The 2013 event will also include a Startup Challenge that will give 10 new photonics entrepreneurs 3 minutes to pitch their businesses to a team of expert judges, and the Prism Awards for Photonics Innovations ceremony and banquet sponsored by Photonics Media and SPIE.

Photonics West symposia include LASE, the world's leading conference on, fiber, solid-state, disk, ultrafast, and semiconductor lasers, as well as VECSELS; MOEMS-MEMS, the conference focused on the micro- and nanofabricated electromechanical and optical components; OPTO, a conference that addresses the latest developments in a broad range of optoelectronic materials and devices, including semiconductor lasers and LEDs, and the technologies that integrate them for cutting-edge industrial applications; and the Green Photonics virtual symposium, which brings together the latest research in photonics applications for energy, sustainability, and conservation.

The trade show and conference kicks off with BiOS, where the latest optical and photonic technologies used in diagnostics, therapeutics, and imaging are presented and discussed.