After a two-year hiatus PITTCON (The Pittsburgh Conference on Analytical Chemistry and Applied Spectroscopy) resumed in March 2023, as an in-person conference/expo. This year’s conference was in Philadelphia, PA and drew over 7,500 people (~5,000 attendees & 2,500 exhibitors). PITTCON started in 1950 and grew into one of the largest expos for laboratory products held in the U.S. The conference is now smaller than it once was but it remains an important conference and business to business touch point for our industry.
BRANDTECH once again had an exhibit stand. We featured the VACUU-PURE 10C and PC 3001 VARIO select vacuum pumps and displayed our product offering from BRAND & VITLAB. Our stand was smaller than years past but we had a big presence with a large contingent of staff attending to meet with distributors, OEM customers and others in the industry. In addition to staff from BRANDTECH we were joined by some of our colleagues from BRAND (Christoph Schoeler, Peter Schutte & Eduardo Hoffman), VACUUBRAND (Constantin Schoeler) and VITLAB (Wolfgang Nicolaus). Of course, many attendees visited our booth, it is always great speaking with lab personnel and showcasing our range of products that can help make their daily lab tasks simple, easy, and efficient!
With roots in analytical chemistry the expo continues to feature a range of analytical instrumentation from manufacturers around the world. Products on display ranged from Atomic Absorption to elemental X-ray analysis equipment. While the expo still “skews” towards Chemistry, over the years it's diversified attracting attendees and manufacturers from the life sciences. The conference portion of the meeting features technical tracks with speakers and tutorials as well as research posters. One of the hot topics at this year’s meeting was Per- and Polyfluoroalkyl Substances- (PFAS). With governments looking to regulate PFAS chemicals, the research community is focused on finding alternatives and refining protocols for detecting and measuring PFAS levels in the environment. The PFAS situation will present challenges and opportunities for our business and industry in the coming years. We’ll be able to track PFAS developments and others trends in the industry at next year’s Pittcon in San Diego, CA. Hope to see you there!
