The Exhibit Hall is an extension of the ATS 2010 educational experience, featuring more than 150 companies showcasing products and services supporting pulmonary, critical care and sleep medicine. (Photo by Steve Schneider)

The Exhibit Hall at ATS 2010 will, as in years past, feature more than 150 pharmaceutical companies, medical device manufacturers, publishers, public interest organizations and healthcare recruiters whose products and services help the respiratory community. And the Exhibit Hall will continue to provide a convenient way for attendees to learn the latest information about these products and services from highly knowledgeable company representatives.

However, as the hall evolves to meet the needs of conference attendees, there will also be several new programs and activities in the 2010 Exhibit Hall, which this year will be adjacent to the hall where the thematic poster sessions will be held.

• Product Theaters: Introduced at the 2009 conference, Product Theaters offer attendees the most up-to-date scientific and clinical information on specific products and services. For 2010, they will be expanded to include regular 45-minute presentations in the larger theaters and two 20-minute presentations in the Mini-Product Theater. All Product Theater presentations, which will include a boxed lunch, will be held from noon to 12:45 p.m., on Sunday, Monday and Tuesday. The Mini-Product Theaters will be held from noon to 12:20 p.m. and again from 12:30 to 12:50 p.m., on Sunday, Monday and Tuesday. Additionally, for the first time, the ATS will be offering an International Product Theater on Monday, May 17, in the International Pavilion. This program, offered by Chiesi Farmaceutici S.p.A., will be available for international attendees only. Jill Ohar, M.D., professor of medicine at Wake Forest, who gave an update on COPD , recalls a lively discussion after her Product Theater presentation. “The attendees asked good questions—which is to say, hard questions—and talked to me individually long after the session ended,” she said.
• Job Recruitment Center: New in 2010, the Job Recruitment Center will help you to succeed in your job search. At the Center, which will be located at the back of row 1500, attendees can check the online job board ads or the postings on the regular job board, meet with recruiters in a relaxed environment or set up a time during the conference to interview.
• The ATS Center: For the 2010 conference, the ATS Center will move to the Exhibit Hall in booth 832. In addition to getting information about the conference, the ATS Center features materials on all the Society’s educational and outreach programs, from its journals to its international activities in Africa and Asia. You can learn more about the Society, pick up free patient education materials, and, if you’re not already, become an ATS member.
• Discovery Zone: Started in 2009, the Discovery Zone provides attendees an opportunity to learn about and interact with participating exhibitors in some of the smaller booths throughout the hall. Smaller exhibitors are often start-up companies with new ideas and innovative products and technologies that may change patient care. Participants are entered into a drawing for one of several iPod touches.
• Internet Access: In 2010, there will be a number of computers available to check e-mail inside and right outside the Exhibit Hall so that conference attendees can keep in touch with colleagues back home and who are also attending the conference. The computers inside the hall will be located at the end of the 500 aisle.

150 Exhibitors, 150 Reasons to Visit the Exhibit Hall
These new features are expected to enhance the experience of conference attendees who visit the hall. Of course, the biggest draw of the Exhibit Hall is the information attendees can gain by talking with representatives about new medications and medical devices, scientific publications and other medical organizations, public interest organizations and business support services. All these resources are available in one place, at the same time

The Product Theaters have been expanded to include two sizes of venues.

Many who visit the hall appreciate the fact that companies typically send their most knowledgeable representatives to the conference, as well as credentialed experts from their Drug Information or Medical Affairs departments. Often, physicians and nurses find themselves speaking with other physicians and nurses, rather than sales representatives.

“The Exhibit Hall is a highlight of the annual meeting for me,” said John Hansen-Flaschen, M.D., chief of pulmonary, allergy and critical care at the University of Pennsylvania. “As an academic physician who forgoes all financial ties with industry, I have remarkably little access to information about new pharmaceutical products and medical devices within my home institution.”

“I look forward to visiting the Exhibit Hall at the annual meeting of the ATS to learn what’s new and to talk with the exhibitors’ medical information officers,” he continued. “I particularly appreciate the opportunity to talk with publishers and with senior executives of small companies who are introducing innovative products. Most years, I also invite three or four companies to visit our practice.”

Trainees and other attendees who are newer to the fields of pulmonary, critical care and sleep also find the Exhibit Hall highly informative and a convenient and effective way to learn and stay up-to-date.

“Knowledge is an ongoing process. I was able to take part in some hands-on procedures while in the Exhibit Hall,” said Nicki Tarant, M.D., a trainee who attended the 2009 ATS International Conference and who visited the Exhibit Hall. “I want to take these procedures back to the program and start performing them more often so that they become second nature.”