November 27 - 29, 2007

Report on joint MRS Fall Meeting, held in Boston, between November 27 and 29, 2007 at the Hynes Convention Center

Trade Exhibition Report by Cameron Chai

Although I can only report on the trade exhibition as I didn't attend any of the paper presentations, I have to say from the outset, Boston is a beautiful city and a great venue for a conference, with elements of architecture that blend the ultra modern with those of days gone by, with the buzz of a city whose team had just won the "World Series" of baseball.

With around 1500 registrants, this event is a bit smaller then the MS&T 07 event I attended a couple of months ago, but nevertheless, there were still plenty of people around and I have to say, the American's know how to attract plenty of exhibitors, with a couple of hundred booths filled and no shortage of people manning them. In fact, several of those who participated in MS&T, were also present again.

Based on my conversations with other exhibitors, most seemed happy with the level of interest in their products.

There was also a strong presence from those involved with nanotechnology. Companies like Alfa Aesar and Strem Chemicals have bolstered the number nano-related products in their arsenals. Additionally, the number of atomic force microscope manufacturers and ananopositioning manufacturers was incredible, with more set to join the game in the near future. There were also several manufacturers of equipment used solely for producing carbon nanotubes.

With our AZoM stand located next to all the publishers, we attracted our fair share of traffic (especially when they brought out the cales) and many of the academics were interested to hear about our journal and our patented open access publishing model.

It was also interesting and refreshing to hear that many people were aware of our site, with many telling us they used the site regulalrly, although they were surprised to hear we were based in Australia.

As I had done at MS&T, I conducted a series of interviews with some of the exhibitors to find out whattheir latest developments were and some were good enough to share with me information on products that have not yet been released. If you are interested to hear what they had to say, click on the links below.