Energy conference outgrows LI, heads to Manhattan

A highly popular energy conference held on Long Island the past two years to tout the virtues of the soon-to-be-opened Advanced Energy Research and Technology Center in Stony Brook has outgrown Long Island, conference organizers say.

The Advanced Energy Conference, which has been held at the Hyatt Wind Watch Hotel in Islandia, will be held, for its third year, at the New York Hilton in Manhattan in November.

Some Island business people privately grumbled that the conference that highlights the energy center due to open this fall should be held on the Island. But conference and center officials said earlier this week that 2,000 people are expected at the two-day conference beginning Nov. 8.

"We outgrew" the Hyatt, said David Winchester, chairman of the conference's sponsorship committee. "This is an important program for New York State. It's bigger than Long Island. This way, Long Islanders and all New Yorkers will benefit."

Yacov Shamash, the center's vice chairman, said people had to be turned away at the Wind Watch last year because there was not enough room. "We could accommodate only 850," said Shamash, adding that more than 1,000 showed up.

The Crest Hollow Country Club in Woodbury, site of numerous conferences and events, can accommodate 1,800, club officials said.

Robert Catell, the former KeySpan-National Grid executive who is the center's chairman, said that while the center is in Stony Brook, "it collaborates with business and academia throughout the state."

In fact, center officials say, the facility is aimed at attracting business and technology projects far beyond Long Island.

For that reason, in January the New York State Power Authority committed $500,000 to support the center.