2026 Falling-Weight Deflectometer Users Group Meeting

The board of directors of the FWD Users Group is pleased to announce the 35th Annual FWDUG Meeting. This year’s meeting will be held in-person at the Great Wolf Lodge on September 15, 16, &17, 2026 (Tue, Wed, Thu) in Kansas City, Kansas.

The meeting offers an excellent opportunity for information exchange, and if you have any questions about FWD equipment, data collection or analysis you can most likely get them answered.

This year we have arranged to align the FWDUG meeting with the Annual TSD Device Pooled Fund Symposium! We are all very excited to bring these two groups together to maximize the opportunity for all our members to attend both these great events while minimizing our members’ travel requirements.

The TSDD Symposium will take place on September 14th - 16th at the Great Wolf Lodge in Kansas City. The meeting will conclude with a half-day morning session on the 16th, at which time the FWDUG meeting will begin. The FWDUG meeting will have a half-day session in the afternoon of the 16th and will conclude with a full day session on the 17th.

The two meetings will remain as separate events and members interested in attending either the TSDD Symposium and/or the FWDUG meeting will need to register for both meetings and associated lodging separately .

Presentation sessions will last one to one-and-a-half hours with breaks and exhibitor breakouts between the presentations.

Dates:

• Tuesday, September 15, 2026 – Pre-conference Reception (evening)
• Wednesday, September 16, 2026 – Technical Sessions (afternoon) and an evening dinner and event
• Thursday, September 17, 2026 – Technical Sessions (all day)

Call For Presentations:

Informal presentations are solicited on all topics related to Falling Weight Deflectometer and Rolling Wheel/Travelling Speed Deflectometer use, lightweight deflectometer use, integrated data collection with other technology including GPS, ground penetrating radar, and video imaging, data analysis, back-calculation, equipment calibration and maintenance, and personnel training. If you have information to share, please see the Meeting Announcement on the FWDUG website for more information and instructions.

30 minutes is allowed on the program for each presentation. The atmosphere is informal, and questions frequently come from the audience. This year, a moderator will be assisting to help with Q&A from the audience.

If interested in presenting, please reach out to Stan Smith at [email protected].

Hotel Information:

Lodging for this year’s meeting will be held at the Great Wolf Lodge located at 10401 Cabela Drive, Kansas City, Kansas.

Standard Rooms are $135/night plus tax. The hotel room cutoff date is Sunday, August 17, 2026 . After this date, there is no guarantee that you will receive the conference rate. Parking is available to registered hotel guests, for an additional fee.

Each guest must make his or her own reservation. Reservations can be made by phone or online (booking code "2609FWDU"):

Hotel Phone Number: 1-866-944-9653

Online booking: · Great Wolf Lodge | Kansas City

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Please Note: Reserved room blocks for the FWDUG meeting and the TSD Symposium are being held separately by the hotel. If you are registering for both meetings, please be sure to specify to the hotel which nights you plan to book under the FWDUG room block.

Key Information from the hotel:

· The Great Wolf Lodge is CASHLESS.

· The Waterpark hours are 10am-8pm.

· Check-in time starts at 4pm and Check-out time is 11am. But you can use the waterpark at 10am the day of check-in and till 8pm the day of check-out. Early check-in or late check-out may be available upon request at an additional cost.

Transportation and Parking

· The hotel is located approximately 23-miles from the Kansas City International Airport (MCI).

· Public transportation and car rentals are available.

· Parking is available to registered hotel guests, for an additional fee of $20 per vehicle per day/night.

Transportation:

The hotel is located approximately 23-miles from the Kansas City International Airport (MCI). Public transportation and car rentals are available.