Pittcon returned to Chicago, Illinois, this year, from March 2 to 6, marking its first trip back to the city since 2009. The conference received a chilly reception, as temperatures dipped below 10° F (-12° C). The weather may have affected day visitors, as the total number of attendees fell 17.0% to 15,104 (according to figures available as of March 4) from a year ago, when the show was held in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. In 2009, attendance totaled more than 19,000. Pittcon 2015 will be held in New Orleans, Louisiana, from March 8 to 12.

The number of exhibitors also appears to have declined, falling from 1,011 last year to 926 (according to figures available as of February 10) this year. The total exhibition space looked notably smaller. In fact, a number of exhibitors had smaller booths compared to last year, including Beckman Coulter, Bruker and Phenomenex. Among the firms with large booths were AB SCIEX, LECO and Shimadzu.

Although there were smaller exhibits and fewer press conferences, Pittcon continues to be a showcase for product introductions. Key products launches were announced by AB SCIEX (see page 7), Rigaku Raman (see page 6), SciAps (see page 4) and Waters (see page 7). Miniaturization continues to be a key trend among new products. Several handheld molecular spectroscopy systems made their debut at the show. Ease of use was a prominent theme among new products. Waters’s ionKey/MS and AB SCIEX’s CESI 8000 both emphasize improved sensitivity with plug-and-play usability. The CESI 8000 is AB SCIEX’s first CE product following the transfer of the business from Beckman Coulter (see IBO 7/15/13).

Vendor product launches, presentations and discussions emphasized increases in customer productivity. At its press conference, Thermo Fisher Scientific highlighted its broad range of products and role as a productivity partner for customers. The company discussed its Unity Lab Services, noting that it is working with lab testing company Eurofins to provide outsourced maintenance and spare parts management. Tom Loewald, senior vice president and president, Analytical Instruments at Thermo, told IBO that customers are wanting to work with fewer vendors and that Thermo can provide sourcing, contract management and scientific workflow expertise.

One of the tools for optimizing lab productivity as well as ease of use is informatics. Informatics for the lab is rapidly evolving. Developments addressing user interface and flexibility were part of new software introduced by Bio-Rad Laboratories (see page 4), while Accelrys’s new product furthers mobile functionality within the lab (see page 4), and Thermo’s latest update to its chromatography data system enhances instrument integration (see page 4). The use of lab data for diagnostics was addressed by STARLIMS. David Champagne, division vice president at Abbott Informatics Solution, of which STARLIMS is a part, told IBO that the use of the firm’s LIMS products is rapidly expanding in diagnostic markets, where mobility, advanced analytics and visualization tools are increasing the adoption of such tools.

Informatics also facilitates access to and use of experiment data. At Pittcon, the Allotrope Foundation and BSSN Software held press conferences discussing their respective standards initiatives for analytical instruments. A developer of an open framework for lab data, Allotrope announced the deployment of its first Proof of Concept application, which standardizes experiment definition, initiation and output from HPLC control software. Allotrope also launched its Partner Network for collaboration with instrument and software companies, and academia. BSSN launched a version of its Seahorse Scientific Workbench for mobile devices. The company is currently working to embed its software, which supports the AnIML standard for experimental data, within electronic lab notebooks and LIMS.

The past and future of analytical technology were observed. Waters celebrated the 10th anniversary of its launch of UPLC. As for the future, speakers at Waters and AB SCIEX’s press conferences provided a glimpse of new analytical capabilities. At the Waters’s event, Chris Elliott, PhD, professor of Food Safety and Director of the Institute for Global Food Security at Queen’s University Belfast, discussed the prevalence of food fraud in Europe and his lab’s use of TOF-MS to enable the simultaneous screening for markers of multiple types of food adulteration. Jenny Van Eyk, PhD, of Cedar Sinai Medical Center’s Advanced Clinical Biosystems Research Institute gave a presentation at AB SCIEX’s event on the use of proteins to track a patient’s disease status over time.