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<< back to the 2004 archive listing << Food Protection Trends COMMENTARY from the executive director “If IAFP recorded presentations, would you be interested?” It was the best Annual Meeting ever! IAFP 2004 exceeded all predictions! It was a great Annual Meeting! On the other hand, was it really? One of the challenges of writing a monthly column in a print publication is that you have to work so far in advance. As Kathy Glass, our new President, indicated in her column, we must write our columns about five or six weeks in advance of the publication date. Therefore, when you read this column, the Annual Meeting will be history, over with, completed, all done, etc. Of course, at that time (present time for those of you reading this!), most all of the statistics from IAFP 2004 will be known. As of right now (my present time), all of our indicators show that IAFP 2004 will not only break previous records, but also IAFP 2004 will shatter those benchmarks! As of August 1, our Exhibit Hall is filled to capacity (128 booths) as it has been for the past three weeks. We have been able to accommodate late requests for exhibit booths because of cancellations of other exhibitors; otherwise, we would have had to turn some exhibitors away this year. Last year, our Exhibit Hall held 107 booths, which means we had a 20% increase in exhibitors over IAFP 2003. Sponsorship monies followed the same trend and increased by 20% over last year. Attendance should also show a healthy increase when comparing IAFP 2004 to IAFP 2003. For 2003, we had 1,481 attendees. Again, if I may take you to my “present time” preceding IAFP 2004’s beginning, we have met last year’s total attendance in our pre-registered attendees. Normally, we have between 100 and 150 attendees register on-site at the meeting so we should have no challenge in exceeding 1,500 attendees at IAFP 2004. That would indicate we should see between a 6% and 10% increase in attendance at IAFP 2004 when comparing to IAFP 2003! I have said it before, but it is worth repeating, “these are wonderful problems to have to deal with!” Some of IAFP’s growth has caused concern for our Annual Meeting attendees in the past and I have to imagine (at my present time) that we will hear the same concerns expressed this year. The concern I am thinking of is that there are too many concurrent sessions and that it is too difficult to see everything (exhibits and posters) and hear everything (symposia and technical sessions) and the choices of what to do or where to go are bewildering. IAFP 2004 offered six concurrent sessions for attendees to choose during all session times in addition to the Exhibit Hall and poster sessions. Just 8 or 9 years ago, I recall the debate that took place when we discussed increasing from three concurrent sessions to four in some time slots. This does bring up a question for you whether you attend Annual Meetings or if you are unable to do so. If IAFP recorded presentations at its Annual Meetings, would you be interested in purchasing CD’s containing voice recordings and PowerPoint slide presentations that would be a compilation of all Annual Meeting presentations? We could also include PowerPoint presentations of each of our poster presentations for those not being able to get through all that the IAFP Annual Meeting has to offer! This is one way that we have been looking at to address the age-old issue of not being able to be in more than one place at a time. If you have an opinion on this and have a minute, send me an E-mail (dtharp@foodprotection.org) to let me know your thoughts. I am confident that with all the planning so many people initiate for IAFP Annual Meetings and with the high-caliber of speakers we have on the program this year, “IAFP 2004 will exceed all predictions!” (at least until IAFP 2005 takes place!). If you were in Phoenix for IAFP 2004, I hope that you are now able to say, “This was the best Annual Meeting ever” and I hope that you mean it! |