2014 is the year I celebrated attending my 10th Pittcon. Pittcon this year was held in Chicago. Last year the show was in Philly. If the goal of Pittcon organizers is to kill the show, they are doing a fine job! Attendance and number of booths was way down again. I have not seen the official numbers from this year, but the eye test made this an easy conclusion.
Pittcon was in Chicago a few years back and in case anyone forgot what happened then....snow and winter weather caused fits for our international travelers and in our case specifically, we had to hodge podge a booth together with whatever samples we had on hand as our overseas manufacturer could not get a flight out to Chicago as most were cancelled due to weather.
I know it may come to a shock to some, but it snows in Chicago. This year in particular, it snows a lot. Even the local commuters, such as myself, had to endure 2-3 hour drives into the show each morning as weather essentially shut down traffic.
I implore those in charge of choosing locations to keep the show in warmer weather locations. I understand that the next two are finally back where they belong (New Orleans and Atlanta), but then its back to Chicago, Philly, and Chicago again the following 3/4 years.
As far as the show goes, traffic at the booths were extremely low and exactly what I expected due to the winter weather that everyone seen coming. Science Week had to go on without one of its top presenters due to a cancelled flight.
Let's hope the show goes better next year in New Orleans!
