Heading to the Big Easy?

I just got my airplane reservations to fly down to New Orleans this June 14 for the SNM annual meeting. I am looking forward to the conference which allows me to learn the latest research in nuclear medicine and PET and to connectwith old friends and make new ones.

To tell the truth, I am also curious about how the Big Easy has changed since the last SNM conference, before the hurricane drowned much of the city.

I remember walking the long hallways of the convention center that later became a sort of trap for some of the residents fleeing the flood.

I have talked to some of our editors who have been at meetings in New Orleans during the last couple of years and they say the city is mostly recovered, at least in the tourist areas, and that the conference facilities and restaurants are as good or better than before.

Of course, the main reason to go the annual meeting is to learn more about where nuclear medicine is heading in the next few years. It seems that at every meeting there is some new and exciting advance, from fused systems to new radiopharmaceuticals. This year I expect to see SPECT/MR in the exhibit hall and maybe get a glimpse of a new targeted imaging agent-perhaps a SPECT Alzheimer's plaque imaging agent.

I also look forward to the social events, such as the opening ceremony in the exhibit hall, the technologist party and the traditional technologist game show, which makes learning such fun.

Of course, one of the best things is meeting with our readers and finding new contributors to our magazine.

So, if you are coming on down to the Big Easy, be sure and stop by the ADVANCE booth and leave me a message or stop me in the hall and let me know what you want to see on this blog or in the magazine.

See you there.