Some attendees at an ACS National Exhibition map out their booth visits ahead of time, while others breeze in between scientific sessions to see what’s new. Yesterday, I stepped into the hall in Atlanta with a strict purpose: to scope out the best freebies.
More than 300 exhibitors and technical personnel from chemical and biotech companies, laboratory equipment suppliers, scientific staffing companies, book and journal publishers, software developers, universities, and government agencies were on hand starting yesterday to show off their products and services in Halls B2 & B3 in the Georgia World Congress Center. Most all of them have stamped their logos on a little something you can take home. What that is varies greatly.
I foraged through 20 aisles of booth real estate stocked with towering displays, dramatic glassware setups, gloveboxes, instruments, conference tables, and oodles of friendly representatives asking how I was. But I refrained from picking up the standard stuff—candies, pens, pencils, business cards, brochures, and fact sheets. Other attendees, however, happily scooped it into their bags and entered ubiquitous raffles for iPods. What else is there besides pens and iPods? Plenty! Here are the highlights of my collection.
[Photo by Rachel Petkewich]
Cool stuff: Squishy foam squeeze balls, a genuine beaker mug, stylin’ safety glasses, a reversible slotted and Philips screwdriver that I was warned not to carry on the plane home. I resisted most periodic tables, but grabbed a couple of attractive ones.
Highly notable items: The ACS Insurance booth offered both a 2-in-1 puzzle-and-ruler and a tote bag that folds down to a rather compact rectangle that snaps shut. I also really liked Sigma-Aldrich’s Precision Seal Septa Sizer, which was essentially a red rubber coaster with raised circles representing actual joint sizes.
The pièce de résistance: I acquired my very own Kenny Chemist at the Teledyne ISCO booth. This bobblehead doll poses with a representation of the company’s disposable column chromatography line. And, as the sales rep pointed out to me, Kenny really bops his head when he sits on a chromatographic system.
[Photo by Rachel Petkewich]
—Rachel Petkewich, filed at 6:40 AM EST
