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Rebooted and upgraded - SLAS2012 Show Preview
January 2012
EDIT CONNECT
SHARING OPTIONS:
SAN DIEGO—It's not often that an event is simultaneously
held for the 16th time, the 18th time and the first
time,
but that's exactly the feat that the Society for Laboratory
Automation and
Screening (SLAS) is managing to pull off with its first annual conference and
exhibition in Southern California, to be held Feb. 4-8
at the San Diego
Convention Center.
Spring 2010 saw the merger of the Association for Laboratory
Automation (ALA) and the Society for Biomolecular Sciences (SBS) to form the
SLAS, but ALA's LabAutomation2011—the 15th annual
LabAutomation
show—and SBS's 17th annual conference and exhibition were conducted
separately because both events were already locked in and
too far along in the
planning stages to abort or alter substantially. In 2012, though, the ALA and
SBS portions of the SLAS membership will come
together at the same time for the
first time.
According to SLAS CEO Greg Dummer, this watershed
event
isn't simply a reboot, or even a mash-up—it's a whole new creation with a
strong sense of tradition, along with added features that will
enhance the
experience for both portions of the SLAS membership.
"I think our challenge this
year is to maintain that high
level of personal interaction that's been a hallmark of our history as separate
organizations and maintain that sense of
intimacy, at the same time as we're
adding more value and bringing these two groups of people together officially
for the first time," Dummer says.
"The branding is new because this is the
first SLAS annual meeting, but the content is consistent with offerings at past
events for ALA and SBS. There
is something that everyone can be comfortable
with, but at the same time, we are expanding content and pushing into new
areas. That goes to the heart
of why you have a professional society to begin
with. You get the cross-fertilization of all these different scientific disciplines
and allowing people
to have cross talk. There's just a higher level of that
now."
The program planning committee
approached it as if it was
starting a new legacy, notes Dan Sipes, co-chair of the SLAS2012 Scientific
Program Committee, "which, of course, we were,
" he says. "But we started with
fresh eyes realizing that it will change in the future. We pulled together a
certain format to provide a baseline and
a template, but it's designed to
evolve into the future."
One of the main challenges, according to
Sipes, was in
combining the immense amount of content into one program.
"We couldn't simply be
additive and combine the equivalent
of the ALA and SBS programs into one because it would be too much content and
ultimately dilutive," he says.
"Because this is so new, putting together a
strong program in all the necessary tracks was challenging, especially in terms
of picking the highest-
quality talks with only a few days to do it in. We
basically have a little over two-and-a-half days for the scientific program,
when the conferences
for ALA and SBS were each two or three days each, and that
made it interesting to hit the right kind of balance."
"We're literally setting a benchmark with this first annual
meeting, and the key is to learn from what we've done—both
successes and things
we could do better—and then after running out the conference, see what members
got from the program and what their feedback is,
react to that and adjust
thereafter," adds Dr. Frank Fan, the other co-chair. "But I think we've figured
out how to run a meeting in a short
timeframe and not overwhelm people, while
also giving them lots of useful content.
"We've installed
some great mechanisms going forward," Fan
continues. "The program chairs for the 2013 event were on the program
committee, and they've participated
in the whole planning process this year, so
that gave them a good idea as to how things run. That, along with all of us
attending the conference and
then getting member feedback, will be huge to
continued success and improvements going forward."
Many of the professionals at the SLAS home office near
Chicago come from the former ALA, the co-chairs note, and one of the concepts
that
Dummer—who was executive director of the ALA—brought over was a sort of
tripod concept of "the three E's," in which the program planners give more or
less equal weight to the education aspect, which is the scientific program; the
experience aspect, which is the social and networking side; and the
exhibition,
which plays into networking but also brings in the new products,
business-to-business connections and more.
To that end, Dummer notes, the first annual SLAS meeting
brings attendees more than 300 posters, more than 130 scientific
presentations,
more than 20 short courses, more than 275 exhibitors, some 15 SLAS special
interest groups meeting at the event and six organizations
with which SLAS has
some kind of alignment and relationship with in major conference events.
"We've got more than 55,000 square feet of exhibition space
and more than 40 new companies that have never been at any of our conferences
before,"
he adds.
"This is the first combined society annual conference, and I
see it being something
that people should attend because it really expresses
the core values represented by the two parts of the society and all members can
expect to see
their content and interests covered," says Fan, who serves as a
director of research at Madison, Wis.-based Promega Corp. "But another reason
to come
is that this merged society is also aiming to explore new
territories—that was part of the board's strategic plan when the SLAS was
created.
Therefore, there will be new things to see, new tracks and new
directions as well as familiar subjects and events."
As challenging as it was to put together such an ambitious
program for two distinct sets of SLAS members, everything came
together quite
nicely, says Sipes, the director of advanced automation technologies at the
Genomics Institute of the Novartis Research Foundation, and
the content from
each side looks like it will complement the other nicely. For his part, Fan
notes that he's never been part of organizing such a
large and complex event
and to his surprise, "we finished everything in terms of the scientific program
three or four months before the meeting start.
Usually, you see all sorts of 11th-hour
actions to get things together, but that wasn't the case here."
Dummer expects between 4,400 and 5,000 people will be at the
event, and based on registrations so far, when he spoke to
ddn in late December, attendance was tracking at 3 percent ahead of
project levels. In addition, the exhibit hall had already been expanded
twice
by that point and was at the time sold at 110 percent. In addition to that,
sponsorships were 113 percent sold.
SLAS2013 will be in
Orlando Jan. 12-15, 2013, and Dummer
says, "We already have the keynote speakers for that event and will start
marketing that next as soon as we're
done with SLAS2012. The strategy is to
alternate between the East Coast and West Coast. For the foreseeable future, it
will be between San Diego and
Orlando, but because we have so many members
higher up the coast, we might look farther northeast at times going forward."
For more information, visit the SLAS2012 website at
www.slas2012.org/ or the SLAS main website at www.slas.org/. Also on the
electronic front, Dummer notes that mobile apps have been created to make it
easier for convention attendees to
schedule their time and navigate the exhibit
floor.
SLAS elects three new
members of the board of directors
ST. CHARLES, Ill.—The Society for Laboratory Automation and
Screening (SLAS) elected new members to the board of directors,
whose terms
commence Jan. 31. They are Dr. Frank Fan, a director of research at Madison,
Wis.-based Promega Corp.; Robyn Rourick, the senior manager of
study operations
at Genentech in San Francisco; and Daniel Sipes, the director of advanced
automation technologies at the Genomics Institute of the
Novartis Research
Foundation.
"SLAS is pleased to announce and welcome three highly
qualified
individuals as members to the SLAS board of directors," says Michelle
Palmer, president of SLAS. "Adding the expertise and diversity of Frank Fan,
Robyn Rourick and Daniel Sipes will help SLAS fulfill its mission of being the
preeminent global organization for laboratory science and technology
professionals."
Fan's group at Promega focuses on developing assays and
technologies for
cellular analysis and drug discovery, and previously he was a
senior investigator in the anti-infectives division at GlaxoSmithKline. Rourick
brings
more than 20 years of industrial experience in development, direction
and management of pharmaceutical sciences, analytical chemistry, drug
metabolism
and pharmacokinetics, and at Genentech she oversees non-clinical
studies for multiple therapeutic programs. Sipes is responsible for development
of
hardware and assay technologies to support large-scale cellular profiling
and high-throughput screening efforts.
The three board members whose terms close in January are Dr.
Robert Ames of GlaxoSmithKline PLC' Prof. William Janzen of the
University of
North Carolina, Chapel Hill; and Palmer, who is at the Broad Institute of
Harvard and MIT.
Eight emerging
entrepreneurial companies to participate in
Innovation AveNEW
ST. CHARLES, Ill.—As entrepreneurial companies continue
to
experience challenges while facing unstable economic conditions, the Society
for Laboratory Automation and Screening (SLAS) will provide eight
emerging
companies from around the world with the opportunity to showcase their
innovations through the Innovation AveNEW program at the First Annual
SLAS
Conference and Exhibition.
The eight companies are BioTillion LLC in Skillman, N.J.;
CryoGaTT Systems Ltd. in Middlesex, United Kingdom; NeurAccel in La Jolla,
Calif.; Persomics in Pretoria, South Africa; Ubiquigent in Dundee, Scotland;
Venomtech in Kent, United Kingdom; regenHU Ltd. in Villaz-Saint-Pierre,
Switzerland; and LabMinds Ltd. in Oxford, United Kingdom.
The mission of Innovation AveNEW is to offer start-up
companies operating within the laboratory science and
technology field "a forum
for positive, collaborative interaction and exposure for their product and/or
service concept," according to SLAS.
Innovation AveNEW will be presented in a
specially designated area on the SLAS2012 exhibit floor.
As described by the SLAS, "The Innovation AveNEW program
affords selected emerging entrepreneurial companies the opportunity to actively
engage
and participate in a world-class event by providing free exhibit space
and travel. The program will help participants to grow and scale their
businesses as well as directly connect them with more than 5,000 purchasing
influencers and decision-makers from more than 40 countries."
Industries covered
by
SLAS2012's scientific program
SLAS2012 educational
tracks
Nine finalists
vie
for $10,000 SLAS Innovation Award
One of the traditions carried
over from the ALA to the SLAS
annual meetings is the SLAS Innovation Award, and the organization recently
named the nine finalists who will vie for the
$10,000 prize.
They are:
The SLAS Innovation Award recognizes the top SLAS2012 podium
presenter who, according to SLAS, "put
forth research that demonstrates
outstanding innovation and contributes to the exploration of laboratory
technologies." The panel of judges that
selected these nine finalists based on
their submitted abstracts will evaluate each of the finalists' podium
presentations at SLAS2012 and then select
the overall best presentation as the
award recipient.
"The SLAS Innovation Award honors the work
behind that one
unique presentation at SLAS2012 that is exceedingly innovative in the
exploration of new technologies or advancement of mature
technologies," says
Dr. Jörg Kutter, chair of the SLAS Innovation Award Panel of Judges. "All of
our finalists have submitted presentations that will
benefit the scientific
community, and the panel of judges is looking forward to determining the award
recipient at the First Annual SLAS Conference and
Exhibition."
The award recipient will be announced Wednesday, Feb. 8
during the SLAS2012 closing
keynote session featuring Dr. Robert Ballard, a
professor at the University of Rhode Island's Graduate School of Oceanography
and founder and
president of the Institute for Exploration at Mystic Aquarium.
Investing in the future
SAN DIEGO—SLAS2012 features much not just for working
professionals, but also for the next generation of working
professionals, notes
SLAS CEO Greg Dummer. As part of that, SLAS offered 39 academic scholarships to
allow students to attend.
"We also pay for their flights and hotel rooms," Dummer
says, "and that number of scholarships is a pretty big
one for a group our
size."
It's a commitment with which he is familiar and comfortable,
going back to his days leading the ALA. But with an eye toward improvements,
there is a new addition to student-oriented activities this year, a fresh
program that Amgen is sponsoring called "SLAS Quenches Graduate Students'
Thirst for Knowledge," he says.
"It's a special wine-and-cheese get-together at the Thomas
Jefferson School of Law with grad students only for the
opportunity to get face
to face with real pros and get real-world insights about what awaits them after
graduation," Dummer explains. Also involved
with putting the event together is the
Keck Graduate Institute of Applied Life Sciences.
he event
will be held Saturday, Feb. 4, from 5:30 p.m. to 8
p.m.
As described in the SLAS2012 program materials on
the SLAS website, the event
allows students "an opportunity to get face to face with front line
professionals, gain real world insight on how to
launch and build successful
careers in laboratory science and automation and enjoy casual conversation,
wine and cheese with other students, practicing
scientists, special guests and
VIPs."
There will also be a student poster competition that
offers
a $750 cash award for most outstanding poster presentation, a $500 cash award
for second place and $250 for third place.
In addition, in an offering called "Life After Graduation
and Career Coaching," presented by the American
Chemical Society, there will be
two early-morning breakfast workshops to help students get the most from their
conference experience and assist them in
job searching.
The Monday morning session on Feb. 6 focuses on how to
network at a technical
meeting, with SLAS noting of the session that "everyone
has uncertainties about how to attend meetings and make them work for you and
your career.
This session will review critical activities that can make a
difference for you—networking conversations, practice with small talk,
listening skills
and body language." The Monday session will also offer input
on résumé and cover letter writing, giving tips on how to structure them and
explaining
the distinction between curriculum vitaes, résumés and more.
The Tuesday morning session on Feb. 7
begins with "The
Interviewing Continuum" to, as SLAS describes, help students "look in the
mirror" to see themselves as a candidate for a
professional position.
"Would you hire the person you see in front of you?" SLAS
asks. "This is the question you effectively
ask each representative who
interviews you."
The Tuesday session will also feature mock interviews to
teach interviewing principles. The audience will provide feedback and
industrial employers who will critique the interviews from their perspective.
Students are asked to bring copies of their résumés.
One-on-one career counseling sessions will
also be available
by appointment at the SLAS Member Center.
(For more information about the show, focusing on social events and local attractions, click here) Code: E011228 Back |
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