The Pittsburgh Conference on Analytical Chemistry and Applied Spectroscopy announced registration statistics for Pittcon 2007 at McCormick Place, Chicago, USA, 25 February 25 to 2 March 2007
The six-day conference and exposition was attended by 22,213 conferees and exhibitors representing more than 85 countries.
A complete breakdown of attendee statistics is available online.
In all, 1085 companies used 2376 booths to showcase their newest instruments, products, and services for laboratories in the analytical, materials characterisation, pharmaceutical, and biomedical fields.
There were 148 companies that exhibited at Pittcon for the first time.
The comprehensive technical programme featured more than 2100 individual presentations distributed among the invited symposia and the contributed oral and poster sessions.
12 symposia were dedicated to acknowledging the accomplishments of the outstanding scientists who received awards at Pittcon.
The American Chemical Society, Division of Analytical Chemistry, which for the first time held its spring meeting in conjunction with Pittcon, arranged four invited symposia, six contributed sessions, and an undergraduate poster session on environmental and nanobiotech topics.
This partnership between the Pittsburgh Conference and ACS-DAC will continue at Pittcon 2008.
The conferee networking sessions, a new venture that provided additional networking opportunities for conferees, were very well attended.
Attendance surveys report that attendees found the sessions very beneficial, and as a result of the new programme's tremendous success, plans are already underway to expand the program for 2008.
Solicitation for new topics will begin in early spring.
The annual Pittcon Science Week programme featured educational programs and workshops for local science teachers, lectures and demonstrations for Chicago-area students, and science education grants to Chicago schools.
The Pittcon 2007 Science Education Award ($24,800) was presented to the Nancy Jefferson Alternative High School, Chicago, during a ceremony at McCormick Place.
Workshops were attended by over 100 elementary school students and by more than 200 middle school students each day.
More than 750 students attended the Thursday science lecture and demonstration, Science You Can See, by Gregg Gould of the California University of Pennsylvania and member of the Pittcon organising committee.
Other grants include the Teacher Excellence Awards, Equipment Grants, and 2007 Pittsburgh Conference Memorial National College Grants.
"Pittcon maintains its core purpose and mission as a non-profit Conference and Exposition while incorporating new trends to add value for our Conferees and Exhibitors," stated Pittcon 2007 president Beth Kirol.
"Preliminary results confirm that the new initiatives we implemented this year in programme, short courses, registration, and exposition have been very positive and have greatly contributed to the success and positive feedback of Pittcon 2007".
John Varine, president of Pittcon 2008, added, "We are very pleased at the progress being made in New Orleans and are looking forward to another successful conference and exposition, 2-7 March 2008."
