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The InformEx expo wrapped up not long ago in New Orleans, Louisiana as the first major trade show of 2015 for the Pharmaceuticals and Fine Chemicals industries. InformEx opened with hundreds of custom manufacturers, product CROs, and over 3,000 attendees.
C&EN headed south to the Big Easy with representatives from marketing, advertising sales, and members of our editorial staff. Kicking off the show in typical New Orleans fashion, C&EN sponsored an exhibitors’ reception downtown on the first night of the conference. Dueling pianos, jambalaya, and Mardis Gras swag set precedent for a busy and exciting week of networking!
We were also thrilled to have C&EN’s new Editor-in-Chief, Bibiana Campos-Seijo, discuss scientific communication and the vision for C&EN and the chemical enterprise over coffee and french doughnuts, fittingly titled Beignets with Bibiana, in the InformEx Networking Lounge.
As a marketer, one can only hope word of our new Editor-in-Chief would spread as quickly as powdered sugar does from beignets to blazers! We thank everyone who made the event such a success!
The Networking Lounge was actually a new addition to the exhibit floor this year, residing in one of two newly featured zones: the cGMP zone and the Specialty zone. The cGMP zone, in partnership with CPhI Worldwide, catered to pharmaceutical buyers, targeting CRO/CMO services, intermediates, API’s and process chemical technologies. The Specialty Zone featured custom, contract and toll manufacturers serving a wide array of specialty chemical industries, including agrochemicals, polymers, flavors and fragrance, petrochemical and coatings.
The conference presented a number of educational opportunities, offering participants a diverse range of emerging issues and trends across the fine specialty chemical and custom manufacturing industry. In a brief moment away from our booth, I had the pleasure of sitting in on a lecture conducted by Harry Zervos, principal analyst and business development manager for IDTechEx North America’s on the emerging wearables technology market.
It seemed a number of people in the crowd shared my sentiment on wearables – are they just a fad or truly the future? However, Zervos made several compelling arguments that smart watches, Google Glass and wristbands are just the beginning. The next generation of wearables: Etextiles. Zervos called upon attendees for collaboration across fine chemical industries, healthcare, textile industries and more – reminding us how important trade shows like InformEx can be to serve as a community meeting place to network and achieve innovative objectives. Fad or future? Still not sure, but Ringly? Sign. me. up.
Across the hall in the cGMP zone, C&EN Publisher, Dr. Kevin Davies, spoke to an engaged crowd about “The Chemistry of DNA Sequencing” on the show floor. Always ‘happy to put on his author hat’, Davies highlighted the advances in the chemistry of DNA sequencing as outlined in his book, “The $1,000 Genome”. Kevin expanded on the sequencing revolution and how it has transformed fields such as clinical genomics and drug discovery.
These were just a few of the exciting happenings on the bustling show floor. We’re already looking forward to returning to New Orleans for InformEx in 2016, and thanks to those who made our events from this year so successful!
For full coverage of the tradeshow, read further in the Show Dailies published by C&EN:
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Did you attend InformEx? What were your takeaways?
Keywords: Bibiana Campos-Seijo, C&EN, Informex, Kevin Davies, trade shows