Conventions

Just LOOK at your hair!  So you hanker after the bright-blue-lips and bangs look? You want to make an entrance looking like an extra from The Lion King?   You like the idea of switching your corn rows for a Russian Imperial Cavalry hairstyle?  Oh, wait, you have a secret hankering to wear a loom on your head?  Oh, you’re just here to hear Musiq Soulchild in concert?  Well, whatever.  At the Bronner Bros International Hair Show you can check All Of The Above. The only trade show dedicated to the care of “black” hair.   As one delegate gushed, “I had a complete blast at the Bronner Bros Show. I live for cosmetology in every aspect! We are a fabulous industry!” This show is Nikki Minaj to the 100th power. Oh, btw, if you opted for the Loom-On-Your-Head look, just be careful about walking through doors…

For more than 30 years, Abilities Expo has also provided an excellent forum for companies with disability products and services to reach out and enhance the lives of this Community.

Pittcon (stands for Pittsburgh Conference) is a Laboratory Science Equipment Conference, and this year it came back to Atlanta after a 13-year gap. Pittcon is the world’s annual premier Conference and Exposition on Laboratory Science. It’s 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). The mission is to “sponsor and sustain educational and charitable activities for the advancement and benefit of scientific endeavor”. In her keynote, the lady president of Pittcon said “Look how this place has changed!”. No matter if you call Pittsburgh home, you could still hang with your peers amid the Georgia pines, and unwind at the end of the day with a julep or two.

Did you know Americans eat 8 billion chickens a year? Add in international volumes and we’re talking a market that is… well, no chicken! The International Poultry Expo is run by the U.S. Poultry & Egg Association, the world’s largest and most active poultry organization. It represents the entire industry as an “All Feather” association, i.e. membership includes producers and processors of broilers, turkeys, ducks, eggs, and breeding stock, as well as allied companies. Formed in 1947, the association has affiliations in 27 states and member companies worldwide. The association represents its poultry and egg members through research, education, communications and technical services. You want breast meat or leg and wing?

Old MacDonald had a trade-show, ee-i ee-i oh. And in that trade show he had some… expert education and networking opportunities that added up to “connecting the world of agriculture”, as the expo banner proclaimed. Innovations in equipment, precision ag, inputs and services were all in evidence, to help farmers maximize profits. Reports counted 382 exhibitors covering almost 175,000 net square feet of space including the AFBF Tradeshow Pavilion. Same reports said there were 12,000 registrants for AgConnect and AFBF convention, compared to 8,000 registrants for AgConnect 2010, held in Orlando. Topics discussed included “knowing machinery parts”, “keys to forage profitability” and “ethanol is all about national security”. Say what? So we’re going to hose down the terrorists with distilled corn oil or something?