Dear Pittcon Attendees:

 

Thank you for continuing to support Pittcon and our mission to sponsor and sustain educational and charitable activities for the advancement of science. I am happy to report that overall attendance at Pittcon 2007 grew by 13% over the previous year—with conferee attendance up by 18%. I am looking forward to building upon this momentum for Pittcon 2008 in New Orleans, to be held March 2-7.

New Orleans has always been a great venue for Pittcon. The city has courageously addressed its many challenges since hurricane Katrina and has already successfully hosted a number of conferences and exhibitions in 2006 and 2007, many even larger than Pittcon. In our recent visits to New Orleans, we were pleased to see the revitalization of the historic city.  The Convention Center, French Quarter, hotels, restaurants and support services are once again bustling with activity, and the New Orleans Convention and Visitors Bureau eagerly awaits our return in March of 2008.

As you may know, the Pittsburgh Conference is a not-for-profit organization with an all-volunteer organizing Committee composed of members of two sponsoring societies—the Society for Analytical Chemists of Pittsburgh  and the Spectroscopy Society of Pittsburgh.  Pittcon is a major part of their mission and nearly one million dollars in proceeds are devoted to advancing scientific education each year. I am pleased that a significant amount of the proceeds from Pittcon 2007 were allocated to the New Orleans public school system to fund science education programs from elementary through high school level. We also made significant contributions in 2006 and will do so again in 2008.  Your continued support of all our science education efforts through participation at Pittcon is greatly appreciated.

Our planning efforts for Pittcon 2008 are focused on maximizing value for both conferees and exhibitors and we will continue to make format changes in the Conference and Exposition based on your helpful suggestions.  We are continuing to strengthen our Technical Program, which always features a diverse range of scientific topics, prominent speakers from industry, academia and government, and a myriad of educational opportunities.  I am especially pleased to note that the ACS Division of Analytical Chemistry will once again co-sponsor a portion of the Technical Program.  We will also provide additional opportunities for you to learn and collaborate with your peers.  The Networking Sessions that we introduced in 2007 were very well received and your suggestions for session topics of most interest are welcome.

Of course, you can be sure that Pittcon’s one-of-a-kind Exposition will again showcase the most recent advances in instrumentation and laboratory products and will provide ample opportunity for hands-on demonstrations and technical discussion with the developers and technical experts.

I hope you’ll join us for the world’s biggest celebration of laboratory science at Pittcon 2008.

Sincerely,

John A Varine, Pittcon 2008 President