THE END OF AN ERA: No More AACC Conventions...

Since I sold my company and retired in June 2013 after over 30 years in business, I have encountered many new firsts with the biggest one being not getting up at 6am every morning and going to work.

Another milestone is coming up this month.

My professional career has been in CLINICAL CHEMISTRY which is chemistry connected with the human body. An easy way to explain what I did was to point to all the “blood tests” your doctor ordered to determine the status of your health. My company Pointe Scientific, Inc. crated and manufactured a variety of “blood tests” for use by laboratories around the world.

My industry, like many other industries, has an annual convention that brings together practically everyone working in my industry and I am talking worldwide and that convention or meeting where new ideas are presented and discussed is called the AMERICAN ASSOCIATION FOR CLINICAL CHEMISTRY and brought together many, many CLINICAL CHEMISTS; nerds of the clinical laboratory.

Since 1980, I have travelled to convention sites around the country. In many cases I brought my family when I could so we could create an adventure vacation out of a business trip.

Last year I attended the convention in Houston, TX which was basically my swan song where I got the chance to say goodbye to friends and colleagues I have known for all these years.

In 2011 we celebrated 30 years in the business with a great party in Atlanta, GA attended by many of our clients and colleagues from around the world.

This July the convention is in Chicago, IL, long one of my favorite convention cities.

Some of the other cities included; New Orleans, LA, Boston, MA, Anaheim, CA, Washington, D.C., San Francisco, CA, Orlando, FL., Philadelphia, PA., San Diego, CA. and Los Angeles, CA.

Sometimes we flew to other destinations from the convention city like to Hawaii when the convention was in San Francisco or to Cabos San Lucas when the convention was in Anaheim, CA.

I have marked on my calendar the fact that I will not be attending the AACC convention this year for the very first time in my career but I am marking the occasion with mixed feelings. Yes, it was a pain to get everything organized for the show but once there, it was a magical if very exhausting time.

I think I will miss the friendships and relationships I have established with people worldwide in all these years but I also can feel the pressure of age and the energy required to perform this job adequately and I think I am glad to leave that to my younger cohorts who remain with the company, many of whom I have trained and guided through many years.