Pittcon is the world's largest annual Conference and Exposition for laboratory science. It is organized by The Pittsburgh Conference on Analytical Chemistry and Applied Spectroscopy, a Pennsylvania not-for-profit educational corporation which is comprised of the Spectroscopy Society of Pittsburgh (SSP) and the Society for Analytical Chemists of Pittsburgh (SACP).

Pittcon attracts nearly 20,000 attendees from industry, academia and government from 90 countries worldwide. In 2011 the event will feature the latest in laboratory technologies and scientific instrumentation from more than 950 exhibitors. It also offers a diverse Technical Program of over 2,200 abstracts to technical presentations and over 100 Short Courses to enhance education and provide the opportunity for attendees to exchange innovative ideas with scientists from around the world.

As a regular attendee of Pittcon over the last decade, Ben Friedle, of LabGrab, has been impressed with how quickly the conference embraces new technologies to enhance the attendee experience. He recently had the opportunity to discuss these trends with Pittcon Senior Marketing & Communications Specialist, Marian Nardozzi.

LabGrab: At Pittcon 2009, I was involved in the first ever 'Pittcon Tweet-Up' - a great meeting of people with at least two things in common - science and social media. Over the past few years I've noticed that Pittcon has really embraced social media to give new opportunities for exhibitors to connect with attendees. What do you use to decide on new features to offer at the show?

Nardozzi: Each year, we evaluate the conference to look for ways to improve the Pittcon experience for both our exhibitors and attendees. We look at what we can do, then evaluate the feasibility of implementation and the cost. We get ideas for new opportunities from different places. Internally, if we have an idea, we will search to find a vendor to help us to implement the plan or if it is something we can do in-house, we set a tactical plan to make it happen.

Some of our ideas come from exhibiting at other shows and seeing how another show does something. We may adopt an idea as it is or more often than not, modify it to fit our audience. Another resource for ideas is from our EACFM Council which is a group of 12 people from our exhibiting companies (representing small, medium, and large exhibitors) with whom we meet four times a year to strategize and discuss marketing. Sometimes, ideas are generated by our exhibitors who have suggestions or a vendor will contact us with a service that proves to be of interest. Not all of the ideas result in fruition and some are implemented in future years.

LabGrab: Can you describe some of the ways you have used technology and social media to promote the conference - and how do you measure the success of your promotions?

Nardozzi: Just like any other business, we measure success of our marketing and PR in terms of final sales, and in our case, that is in conference registrations. However, sometimes programs that are designed to build awareness, direct traffic to the website, and PR campaigns can present a challenge to measure. We have a presence on all of the popular social networking sites such as Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, YouTube, etc. With social networking, it is possible to measure success by generating some call to action and measuring the participation by promo. Google also provides several tools to help track statistics and compiling those reports into a monthly comparative report provides additional measurement.

In addition, this year, we have implemented a Google Ad campaign. Google also provides statistical reports for this campaign as well as. We can also track visitors to our site referred by the campaign. This at least gives us an idea that the ads are getting click through.

We also place our banner ad on third party sites that usually give us click through statistics. We partner with Wiley to put on an educational webinar series that reaches an audience that we may not otherwise have reached.

This year, we have contracted with a press release distribution company and have realized a tremendous growth, reach, and pick up in our press releases nationally. We receive actual statistical reports on each send so this is very easy to measure.

For the past two years, we have selected 50 technical presentations to webcast and give conference attendees 60 days of post-show access. This helps to free up some scheduling conflicts with concurrent sessions and allows an attendee to attend a different session opposite a webcasted session and view the latter once they are back home.

Finally, we use an internet-based survey to our conference attendees and exhibitors. Their feedback on the current event is especially important to us when planning for the following year.

LabGrab: What new tools are available to help attendees navigate the short courses, technical program, and the show floor?

Nardozzi: We are very excited this year to have contracted with an Oregon-based company, CrowdCompass, to create a mobile app. This complimentary app will include complete event information such as the Technical Program, exhibitor listing, Short Courses, and local area and conference related maps. The Pittcon 2011 app will be available for use on Androids, Blackberrys, iPhones, and iPod Touches with access before, during, and after the Conference. Attendees will be able to view the technical sessions, short courses, exhibitor listings with detail (all with search capabilities by date and by application), build their agendas, network with their colleagues, send tweets, and receive regular conference updates.

For those conferees who do not have a smartphone, we continue to offer our traditional web-based program, Agenda Builder, which also enables users to search and create agendas.

And for those who still prefer the hard copy, we distribute a hard copy of all pertinent conference and exposition information in our Final Program.

LabGrab: I find that Pittcon is doing a good job of bringing media attention to the conference and I like the fact that you allow filming and photography on the show floor (which some conferences don't). Will this trend continue?

Nardozzi: Yes, we hope so.

LabGrab: Can you describe how the impact of post conference videos and social media sharing have impacted Pittcon?

Nardozzi: Post-show promotion is almost as important as pre-show. People like to recap or view things that they might have otherwise missed. The post-show buzz also is great for those who didn’t attend this year, to possibly get them interested in attending for the following year. Our media coverage after the conference is just as active as the pre-event media coverage. This also helps build awareness and increase exposure for the upcoming year by keeping Pittcon in the upper minds of the audience.
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Check out photos and video from PITTCON 2010:

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LabGrab would like to extend a special thank you to Marian Nardozzi for her time and insight.