My 40 Years at Pittcon

My 40 Years at Pittcon

Pittcon 2023 is just around the corner in three weeks in Philadelphia!

I have been attending Pittcon or the Pittsburgh Conference for over 40 years. I did not recall the exact date or location of my first Pittcon as a graduate student in analytical chemistry, though it was likely in Cleveland in the late 1970s.?

I did remember my second Pittcon in March of 1980 well because my daughter was born that year and we bought our first house in New Providence, New Jersey. I worked for Celanese Research Company, and the conference was in Atlantic City. I was planning to leave on Thursday, and it started to snow. I delayed my departure to attend a talk by Sciex on triple quad mass spectrometry. By the time I was near home on Springfield Avenue, there were 3 inches of snow on the ground, and the wheels of my rear-wheel-drive Pontiac were slipping badly on the last incline. I almost didn’t make it home that Pittcon.

In 1981, I started working for Perkin-Elmer in the Liquid Chromatography Product Department. I relocated to Connecticut and went to Pittcon every year for the next 19 years. Pittcon was the preeminent conference in the 1980s and 90s, with a massive attendance of 20,000+. For those working in analytical instrument companies, it was the venue to introduce new instruments and a conference not to be missed.

In 1999, I left Perkin-Elmer and started a job with Purdue Pharma. I continued attending Pittcon as a symposium organizer and a short course instructor for HPLC. The conference moved from Atlantic City and started a rotation sequence between Orlando, Philadelphia, Atlanta, Chicago, and New Orleans. Switching roles as a conferee from a manufacturer to a consumer was interesting. At Pittcon 2004 Orlando, I attended a lavish kickoff party by Waters at the Land Pavilion in Epcot for the introduction of UPLC Acquity. I switched jobs again in 2007 to Genentech. I managed the department’s capital budget in buying many UHPLC or MS, and Pittcon’s huge exhibition provides a one-stop shopping experience for most laboratory needs.

Professionally, I often returned from Pittcon inspired by the latest instrumentation innovations and analytical chemistry trends.??My last Pittcon was in 2020 in Chicago during the pandemic outbreak. Pittcon 2021 became a virtue meeting, and Pittcon 2022 Atlanta was canceled outright in February due to a resurgence of infections from the omicron variants.?

Admittedly, things have changed for Pittcon, which no longer enjoy the preeminence of the pre-internet era. The pandemic has fundamentally altered how we live, work, and conduct business meetings. Still, after a hiatus of two years, Still, I am excited to revisit a live Pittcon and re-acquaint face-to-face with my colleagues and friends.?