March 1, 2000; pp. 192 A-196 A
Copyright 2000 American Chemical Society

See Your Guide to Pittcon 2000 for information about the meeting.

Pittcon Faces New Challenges Exhibitors love it and hate it, and still find many reasons to go. Britt E. Erickson Last year in Orlando, a celebration was held in honor of the 50th Pittsburgh Conference on Analytical Chemistry and Applied Spectroscopy. The show attracted nearly 30,000 attendees, a far cry from the 800 that attended the first show in Pittsburgh in 1950, indicating just how important Pittcon has become to the analytical chemistry community. But beneath the accolades, a number of instrument company exhibitors are expressing concerns about the convention. Although some of the issues are not new, they come at a time when Pittcon is facing increased competition from other meetings and the Internet. Indeed, a close look at attendance over the years suggests that Pittcon may be suffering from somewhat of a mid-life crisis. Numbers The numbers tell the story. As Figure 1 shows, the ratio of conferees to exhibitors has been declining since the early 1990s. In 1999, out of 29,893 attendees, 16,356 were exhibitors, and 11,442 were conferees (the rest were students, media, and day-trippers). One reason for the changing ratio is a gradual increase in the number of exhibiting companies over the past 20 years. This is good news: The number of companies exhibiting at Pittcon continues to grow, despite the downsizing that has occurred in the industry. “Last year in Orlando, the number of exhibiting companies was the highest ever,” says Hyman Schultz, president of Pittcon 2000. A total of 1276 companies (3239 booths) exhibited at Pittcon ’99, and just as many are expected this year. Mike Duff, head of the Analytical and Life Sciences Systems Association, a trade association for analytical instrument manufacturers, attributes the increase in exhibiting companies to a rise in the number of small, start-up companies. “For a new company trying to get into the business, Pittcon is perceived as the place to be,” says Duff. The number of international exhibitors at Pittcon has also increased over the years. Although Pittcon continues to be dominated by U.S. attendees, many exhibitors view Pittcon as an international show. “Many of these companies are now exporting 50–60% of their goods overseas,” says Duff. “I think one area that is very ripe for Pittcon to get into is Mexico, Latin America, and South America, particularly because the show will be held in New Orleans for the next three years,” he adds. Targeting customers Although more companies are coming to Pittcon, some exhibitors say that smaller, more targeted shows are growing and taking away customers from Pittcon. “The general perception of the exhibitors is that there just are not enough new customers,” comments Duff. The Pittcon Organizing Committee is quick to point out that they are making every possible effort to attract more conferees to the show. “We exhibit at other professional meetings, including the American Chemical Society [ACS] meetings, and add the names of people who come by our booth to the mailing list,” says president Schultz. “We look for areas that may be underrepresented at the conference, such as pharmaceuticals, and try to exhibit at their professional meetings to attract them,” he adds. But some exhibitors say that these efforts are not enough. “The problem will never be solved until the Pittsburgh Conference hires outside professional help to promote the show,” believes Al Lauer, head of Varian, Inc. Pittcon, as it has been from the beginning, is organized and run by the all-volunteer Pittcon Organizing Committee, which has a unique structure and is often cited as a plus for the show. Most other exhibits, including the one at the national ACS meeting, are organized by paid professionals. “I think there are some very dedicated, hard-working people on the committee, but this marketing issue is a bit beyond them,” says Lauer. “The challenge that the committee and the industry should be working on is how to draw more customers in.” When given the choice between a show that specializes in one particular area versus one that is general to all, many conferees seem to be choosing the smaller shows because they know they will find what they are looking for, say several exhibitors. Although computer searches have made it easier to find your way around Pittcon, it can still be overwhelming and quite a workout to get from one end of the exhibit hall to the other. The idea of having theme halls at Pittcon, rather than randomly distributed exhibits, has been tossed around for years as a way to make it easier for conferees to find their way through the maze of more than 3000 booths. Many question the value of having vacuum pumps displayed next to DNA analyzers. But according to Schultz, “Some companies object very strongly to being next door to their competitor.” At the same time, “You have companies that sell supplies for mass spectrometers—they want to be near the big MS companies,” he says. To top it off, some companies sell nearly everything, so where would they fit in? To be fair to all, the Pittcon Organizing Committee decides where to put companies based on how long they’ve been exhibiting at the show. Those companies that have been there the longest get first dibs on the location of their booth. “If you are a new exhibitor, you may get put in the back of the hall,” admits Schultz. Some exhibitors also say they prefer smaller, more focused shows. Not only do they have a better idea of what products to display, but they can spend more time with the customers, which in the long run generates better quality sales leads. “Pittcon is still critical for introducing new products, but shows such üs ASMS [American Society for Mass Spectrometry] are more customer-based,” says Brad Barrett of Micromass. Michael Elliott, vice president and general manager of PerkinElmer’s pharmaceutical and food analysis division, agrees. “We see shows that are more highly focused and growing, such as AAPS [American Association of Pharmaceutical Scientists], as possible areas for taking away some Pittcon money. We want to present more of an application-oriented product set, rather than a general purpose, trying to be everything type of display, like you have at Pittcon,” he says. However, the value of a show does differ from company to company. “The traffic flow at Pittcon is always good,” comments Mike DeMayo of LINC Quantum Analytics. John Janzer of ThermoMicroscopes admits that “Pittcon is a zoo”; but he likes it because sales leads are abundant and there are more decision-making managers there than at other shows. Janzer’s point about talking to managers is an important one. “It’s not how many sales leads you have, it’s how good they are,” says Allen Konopacki, a psychologist specializing in trade show research and president of INCOMM Research. “As a general rule, as lead volume increases, lead quality decreases. The faster your sales people write up a lead, the less time they are spending to create a relationship with a customer. The key is to find the right people and spend the right amount of time with them,” he says. Cutting costs Although few vendors have decided to completely pull out of Pittcon, many of them have the same complaint—the number of prospects does not justify the costs. Many exhibitors say Pittcon has gotten more expensive over the years, while the number of sales leads has remained the same. Some companies spend 25% of their marketing budget on Pittcon—and a few have even spent upwards of $1 million on the show. However, the amount of money a company spends at Pittcon is really up to them. The bigger the booth, the more it costs, plus the more people that are needed to staff it. And those people need transportation, hotel rooms, meals—it all adds up. In the past, it was common for vendors to have multiple booths, because in their minds, they had to have a bigger display than the competition. Today, however, many exhibitors are scaling back. “About three years ago, we made the decision to shrink the size of our booth,” says Varian’s Lauer. Although he believes it is important to have a presence at Pittcon, Lauer emphasizes there are many other alternatives for reaching customers today. In particular, he sees virtual tradeshows on the Internet as having great potential for attracting customers who can’t make it to Pittcon. Others echo this view. “We’ve scaled back at Pittcon; about four years ago we maxed out,” says Bob Lockerman of CEM, a company specializing in microwave technology. “We now get significant leads from virtual demos on the Internet,” he says. “In the future, there are going to be more effective ways of communicating to our customers,” says PerkinElmer’s Elliott. “The Internet has changed how people access product information.” Despite concerns over the numbers of potential customers and increased costs, many companies say that they continue to exhibit at Pittcon because they have to. “If you are not at Pittcon, you will be missed,” they say. Thermo LabSystems can certainly attest to this. “A few years ago, we decided to take a bold move and not go to Pittcon,” recalls Clive Higgins, president of the company’s U.S. division. “On day one, rumors spread that we had gone out of business.” Missing out on a few sales leads wasn’t what hurt Thermo LabSystems. It was their existing prospects, who thought the company had gone bust, that caused trouble. “The money that we saved by not going to Pittcon was spent flying up and down the country to talk to prospects who had heard the rumors. We had to convince them that we were still a viable vendor,” says Higgins. Alternating years Some exhibitors have suggested holding Pittcon every other year. Bruker’s Doug Martin says Analytica, a trade show comparable in attendance with Pittcon held in Germany every other year, is much more profitable for them than Pittcon. He believes there is not much innovation in one year and would like to see Pittcon held every other year. Hitachi’s Harry Schmus agrees. “Technology doesn’t change drastically in two years.” Allen Sharkins, president of Pittcon ’85 and a current member of the Pittcon Organizing Committee, has a different view. “Companies don’t invent new products every other year; they invent all throughout the year. Pittcon gives them a target date,” he says. “Having the show every year is not the problem,” says Thermo Labsystems’ Higgins. “It is predictable and can be an advantage to the vendor because customers know that new products will be launched the first week in March in time for Pittcon.” Having the show every other year is not likely to happen, says president Schultz. Sites have already been chosen through 2014, he says. Even if having the show every other year were an option, chances are it would only hurt attendance. Konopacki says that studies have shown that conferees get accustomed to going to tradeshows every year. If the format is changed to every other year, during that off year conferees will go to a competitive show. They may even stop going to Pittcon altogether. Geography counts Some exhibitors also worry that Pittcon is becoming a regional show, drawing too heavily from the southern United States in recent years. They would like to see it move to the northeast and midwest to attract the pharmaceutical and chemical companies in those areas. Others would like to see the show moved to the west coast to attract more of the biotechnology industry. Only a few cities, however, can accommodate a conference the size of Pittcon. “At one time there were only four sites that we could use—New Orleans, Atlanta, Chicago, and Orlando. Now there may be more opening up,” says Schultz. “We require about a million square feet of exhibit hall, plus seminar rooms, plus about 15,000 hotel rooms.” In addition, many exhibitors say that a location with fine restaurants and entertainment that lends itself to socializing is important. The Pittcon Organizing Committee is trying to expand to new venues. According to Schultz, Pittcon will be going back to Chicago in 2004, despite the complaints about its bad weather in March. In addition, he says, “Pittcon is going to Anaheim in 2009 to see what we are missing on the west coast.” ËEvery place Pittcon goes, we keep demographics, including what cities attendees are from,” says Schultz. “It is to be expected that if the show is in Louisiana, you’ll get more people from Louisiana.” Other big shows face the same problem. For example, Analytica is always held in Munich and as a result, draws most of its attendees from Germany. In contrast, the smaller, targeted meetings have the advantage of nimbly moving from region to region or, as in the case of the HPLC and HPCE symposiums, even continent to continent. Making connections There is one, often overlooked, arena where Pittcon retains an edge over much of the competition. “Pittcon is great for vendors to mix and establish relationships,” says Jim Sherfinski, vice president of U.S. sales for LINC Quantum Analytics. Jim Byrne, president of Centcom (which handles advertising management for ACS publications), agrees. “It’s all about networking. Pittcon is where I gain my information for the year about what’s going to happen in the industry,” he says. Over the years, companies have been acquired, sold, and merged at Pittcon. “I’ve even seen sales people come to Pittcon with one company and leave with another,” remarks O. David Sparkman, an MS consultant and long-time Pittcon attendee. In fact, Pittcon is a meeting with many purposes. If you ask the organizers, they usually say the goal of Pittcon is to support science education. The Organizing Committee seems to put more weight on the technical program and short courses than on the exhibit. However, Pittcon has also become a place for exhibitors to make connections with other exhibitors. As Jim Ryan, editor of Today’s Chemist at Work, wrote in his February 1998 editorial, “Instrument companies’ exhibits are for each other as much as for potential customers.” A new trend in exhibiting is cross-selling of products,” says Konopacki. “Exhibitors are forming alliances with other exhibitors on the show floor. Shows are no longer a place to buy one component; they are a place to buy total solutions,” he explains. In other words, if a company sells a product that is complemented by another vendor’s product, the two companies will often join forces and show both products. This way, the customer can get the complete package, rather than one piece at a time. Here to stay? Despite the concerns from exhibitors, nearly all of them agree that for the size of Pittcon, the Organizing Committee does a great job in making sure the show runs smoothly. They wouldn’t all make the annual trek to Pittcon if there weren’t something of value in it. Although the purpose of Pittcon is not the same as it was 50 years ago, it clearly remains important to the analytical chemistry community for many new reasons. There is no other meeting like it in the United States, or for that matter, in the world. Analytica in Germany, for example, attracts a large number of attendees, but it does not compare with Pittcon in terms of its technical program. Not only are there fewer sessions at Analytica, but many of the talks are presented in German. And the smaller meetings cannot hope to give customers the same wide choice of vendors and products as found on the Pittcon floor. Centcom’s Byrne sees Pittcon as the most important trade show of its kind in the world. “Europe has one or two major trade shows a year and there are various smaller shows, but worldwide, the show is the Pittsburgh Conference,” he says. Even those in favor of virtual trade shows see the value of Pittcon. As Varian’s Lauer puts it, “Pittcon is going to be with us for a long, long time.” Britt Erickson is an assistant editor of Analytical Chemistry. For more information about Pittcon, check Your Guide to Pittcon 2000. Top