Commentary Grape Crush, meetings rush and why too many events are not a bad thing... In January, the Western Aerosol Information Bureau (WAIB) sent us notification that its Fall conference in California’s Napa wine country was being moved to October “Grape Crush.” The assistant editor and I searched online for “Grape Crush,” thinking it was the new venue. It sounded like a fun place, but we soon realized that it was a term that describes the wine grape harvesting season, and that the WAIB conference was indeed at the same venue but with a new date. Once we got that all sorted out, we changed the event in our print and online calendars. The WAIB event was moved from September to alleviate some of the meeting “pile-up” that was happening in the early Fall. Following a few golf outings in August, in just North America alone, there is the Southern Aerosol Technical Association (SATA) Fall Meeting, The New York Aerosol Forum and the FLADA & IMAAC Latin American Aerosol Congress in Mexico City in September. October brings the 44th WAIB Fall Conference and the far-flung Aerosol Manufacturers’ Association of South Africa (AMA) Golf Day. November sees the Midwest Aerosol Association (MAA) Fall meeting and AEROTECH, the 8th Aerosol & Metal Containers Technology Exhibition in Ningbo, China. And on and on. There is absolutely no shortage of international aerosol events, year round, on virtually every continent. When I first started at SPRAY as the assistant editor 15 years ago, we had difficulty filling up our print calendar page—now, we have trouble getting all the events to fit (but the internet is endless, thank goodness, and everything is posted at https://www.spraytm.com/calendar-2). This activity, to me, indicates that the aerosol industry is robust and thriving. When the Aerosol Forum, which had been gaining momentum in Paris for 10 years, launched in New York last year, no one knew if it would be a success or not, but it turned out better than anyone expected. People want to be at the numerous aerosol events—and that’s a good thing. The problem? People want to be at the numerous aerosol events—and there are a lot of them. It’s a double-edged sword. Sometimes it’s difficult to balance one’s actual desk work or field time with event attendance, especially when the events “pile up” on each other. But wait, you say, haven’t some aerosol organizations cut back from two meetings a year to one? Yes, they have, in an effort to cut down on costs, travel time and most importantly, repetition of ideas. This just makes the event content stronger, however. Rather than sit through the same presentations two or three times a year, attendees are now exposed to different ideas and inspirations at each meeting. From an aerosol industry standpoint, this upswing in activity is a positive; and if the various organizations can come together in the planning and scheduling to help prevent overlap, all the better. Yes, it can be inconvenient to attend all of these events and maybe some of them may be similar, but consider the alternative. We’ve all had that awkward and uncomfortable feeling while staffing a booth at a moribund event, as stragglers wander the aisles, crickets chirp in the background and you look at your watch (or smart phone) every 90 seconds wondering how soon you can get home. The aerosol industry is dynamic and this increase in events is indicative of continued growth. Better too much activity than not enough. Check out our calendar on p. 52 to see what’s coming up this year and next. Don’t see your event? Let us know… 6 Spray March 2017 Spray Technology & Marketing Cynthia Hundley Publisher chundley@spraytm.com Ava Caridad Editorial Director acaridad@spraytm.com Christen Harm Assistant Editor charm@spraytm.com Montfort A. Johnsen Technical Editor montyjohnsen@att.net Susan Carver Vice President, Administration scarver@spraytm.com Doug Bacile National Sales Manager dbacile@spraytm.com Donald Farrell Production production@spraytm.com Joy Cunningham Reader Service Coordinator readerservice@spraytm.com Circulation circulation@spraytm.com Volume 27, No. 3 March, 2017 Industry Publications, Inc. All rights reserved. No part may be reprinted without written permission from the Publisher. Spray Technology & Marketing (ISSN No.1055-2340) is published monthly by Industry Publications, Inc. 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Spray March 2017
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