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AOCS Edible Applications Technology Division
Newsletter August 2008

Looking Forward: Improving the Annual Meeting
Monoj Gupta

The annual meeting of 2008 in Seattle was quite a success from the standpoint of technical papers. A total of 521 technical papers were presented at this meeting. The total number of registrants was 1,716. Without having the exact number of registrants at the Québec meeting in 2007, I was informed that the number in 2008 was lower than that of 2007.

The total number of booths was 107, while that in 2007 was 110. The biggest contrast can be seen between the annual meetings in 1997 and 2008, both held in Seattle. In 1997, there were 2,133 registrants and the total number of booths was 170. This represents an approximately 19.5% drop in total registrants and a 37.1% decline in the total number of exhibitors. Part of this could be industry shift and the overall economy. However, there might be some other factors driving this difference, especially in the number of exhibitors.

Compared to the meeting of 1997, this year's meeting seemed to be lacking "life." The place was too big; the days were filled with technical papers from early morning until 5:00 p.m. The registration booth and the lecture halls were too spread out and the exhibit hall was essentially dead every day. The attendees had very little time for interaction with others except for the opening night mixer and prescheduled business meetings.

Some individuals from the food industry expressed their disappointment because there were not enough technical papers that would be relevant to their needs. I can counter-argue on this one because no industrial speaker would disclose their company secrets, and in some cases university researchers are bound by their secrecy agreement with the sponsors of the projects.

I have personally asked those disappointed individuals to write to me letting me know their interest areas. We can review these comments and see what can be done in the future.

We need to do some serious soul searching to find an appropriate balance between the numbers of technical papers and generating interest among the attendees to visit the exhibit hall and interact with the exhibitors. It is true that one visits the exhibit booths with some relevance to his or her needs, but the convention planning should allow some time for the attendees to get to the exhibit hall floor and find out what it has to offer.

Finally, the exhibitors bear a major share of the cost for the annual meeting. With the declining number of exhibitors and the decreased tendency of the general attendees to visit the exhibitors' booths, the cost for the annual meeting will become prohibitive for the technical attendees. We have to start thinking about the right mix between technical papers and stimulating interest in the exhibitors to revitalize the atmosphere of the annual meeting.

Sincerely,
Monoj Gupta, President
MG Edible Oil Consulting Int'l

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Letter From the Editor, by Neil Widlak

Celebrating 100 Years! 1909-2009

Soybeans: Chemistry, Production, Processing, and Utilization

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