Spectroscopy Focus

摘要

Once again the mighty ASMS Conference flexes its muscles and heads into town, on this occasion Salt Lake City, to allow practitioners of the technique to meet, network, hear presentations from the great and the good, view poster sessions and see the latest offerings from the manufacturers and suppliers. The scale and credibility of this scientific meeting is certainly having an effect on the attendance on more generalist scientific meetings in North America such as the Pittsburgh Conference on Applied Spectroscopy and the HPLC series of shows held in the US every two years. Its organisation is something that other meeting organisers could take some points from, especially the rates charged to attendees. Having noted that point it is also in danger of becoming a victim of its own success and scale if it continues to expand at the current rate. Clear, selective planning was required by attendees prior to even heading out to the venue as to which oral and poster sessions they should be attending. The event this year had in excess of 6,000 attendees, over 160 exhibitors and over 2,700 posters. In addition to that also on offer were over 50 oral sessions, countless workshops, short courses and Tutorial sessions and a spare mental hard drive was a necessity.