By Rebecca Smith
As the Pickering team mentioned in our last newsletter, we were humming with anticipation in the lead-up to attending Pittcon 2023. The conference returned to in-person in March for the first time, post-pandemic, and we jumped at the chance to get to Philadelphia. Kevin McKeown, David Mazawa and I happily hopped on two planes and a train for the trek and immersed ourselves in a week of reuniting with longtime customers and meeting new attendees as well.
Although many of our international distributors were still unable to travel, we did have a good showing of North, Central and South American dealers arrive for meetings and to enjoy the expo. For some of these relationships, this is the first time Kevin was able to actually shake hands and say “hi!” He’s been Pickering’s Sales Manager for coming up on three years this November; that’s a long time to maintain new relationships virtually. The meetings were all fantastic! We appreciated each of our resellers who made the trip and hope to enjoy the mutual benefits of our ongoing partnerships.
Kevin has been in the industry a long time, and he’s got a huge network of existing relationships to tend to as well. David and I went with him to our first Independent Laboratory Distributors Association (ILDA) reception, but he’s been an active participant for over a decade. It was good fun (and food) for sure!
As with every exhibitor, we brought plenty of giveaways and literature for attendees to enjoy (and hopefully learn more about Pickering). This year, our 40th anniversary insulated/reusable shopping bags were a big hit! It was so nice to celebrate our belated anniversary in Philadelphia with the entire expo, now that we’ve moved back to a live conference environment. The bags are right in theme our other big 40th anniversary activities, including our timeline. If you missed seeing this last year, it’s well worth a read! We’ve been involved in a lot of great stuff over the last four decades.
In another of our traditional Pittcon celebrations, we also raffled several prizes. These gadgets are often products associated with our Product Testing Solutions (PTS) line, which are used in consumer product testing and development. It’s our small way of thanking both our PTS customers and our Pittcon booth visitors!
This year, we’d like to congratulate winners Jim Walla from Evonik, and Julio Ogedra (pictured below) from the University of Central Florida. We hope they both enjoy their prizes!
