Number Of Booths Research Articles

PITTCON 2005 TAKES ORLANDO BY STORM

OVER 21,000 CONFEREES, EXHIBITORS, AND MEDIA took sunny and mild Orlando, Fla., by storm for Pittcon 2005 earlier this month—while another storm, snowy kind, simultaneously hit mid-Atlantic and Northeast. At this year's Pittcon, Pittsburgh Conference & Exposition on Analytical Chemistry & Applied Spectroscopy, 1,132 companies showed thousands of analytical instruments and laboratory products in 2,474 exhibit booths, and technical program featured 2,433 scientific presentations. The number of exhibitors fell 5% from 2004, and number of booths was down 9%. At about 21,200, total registration was down 15% from last year Nevertheless, the meeting is going well, with a lot of activity on exhibit floor and in hallways and program rooms, Pittcon 2005 President Daniel A. Wilson, managing director of Clark Laboratories,Monroeville, Pa., said in an interview during conference. Wilson believed that this year's lower numbers were due ...

Traffic Effects of Fairs and Festivals on Low-Volume Roads

Special events, including sporting events, concerts, historical re-enactments, and fairs and festivals, can generate large volumes of traffic such that congestion and associated problems occur on low-volume roads. In particular, theme-oriented fairs and festivals, such as arts and crafts fairs and wine and jazz festivals, are growing in number and popularity throughout the United States. Quantifying and understanding the traffic characteristics of fairs and festivals would be useful in predicting how such events will affect traffic flow on a low-volume road, planning traffic management, and predicting parking needs. One specific need is for trip-generation data for estimating the magnitude and nature of travel associated with theme-oriented fairs and festivals. Background data were collected for a number of West Virginia events on low-volume roads through interviews and questionnaires. Five categories of theme-oriented fairs and festivals were identified: food and drink, arts and crafts, cultural heritage, historical, and performing arts. The number of booths was recommended as the best independent variable to use in calculating trip-generation rates. Attendance and vehicular data were collected and analyzed. Vehicle occupancy for theme-oriented fairs and festivals was determined to be 2.33 people per vehicle. Trip-generation rates and corresponding statistics were determined for 2-day (Saturday and Sunday) and 3-day (Friday, Saturday, and Sunday) events. Implications of the study results for low-volume road managers were considered.

Robots Automate Sample Preparation

For the first time in its 36 years of operation, the Pittsburgh Conference and Exposition on Analytical Chemistry and Applied Spectroscopy had a sharp drop in attendance-down 16 percent to 20,731. That loss was attributed to the fact that the meeting was held in New Orleans for the first time, and most of the lost attendees were students and young professionals who had previously come for only 1 day. The number of exhibitors and the number of booths, however, were both up about 15 percent, to 730 and 1856, respectively. A large proportion of that increase was contributed by foreign companies exhibiting for the first time, but there were also some well-known names, such as General Electric and Xerox, making first forays into analytical chemistry. There was also a sharp increase in the number and type of instruments displayed. "The key skill now in analytical chemistry," says Perkin-Elmer president Horace McDonell, Jr., "may be simply finding the right tool to obtain the answers you need." The predominant theme of the show, as it has been for the past few years, was automation of both laboratories and instruments. That trend is having major effects in chemical laboratories, but it is also affecting the instrument companies themselves. At large companies such as Varian, Beckman, and Perkin-Elmer, as much as 50 percent of the research and development budget is now going toward development of software-a much higher percentage than it was even 5 years ago. Another trend in automation also seemed clear at the show. As recently as 2 or 3 years ago, much of the available software for chemistry was designed for Apple and similar computers. Now, the laboratory standard is the IBM PC. As a representative of another company that manufactures computers noted with only slight exaggeration, "There's probably not a booth on the floor that doesn't have one."