Europeans flock to US for conferences and shopping

Tales abound of European chemical people flocking to the US for conferences and shopping. One US methanol trader tells me with amazement that one of his European colleagues bought 27 shirts last week at the methanol conference in Orlando, Florida. There is no stopping the headlong pursuit of golf clubs and iPods, although one delegate said that everyone was shopping-mad for methanol too.

Our own senior editor Shelley Kerr was in New York City last week for the ICIS US Baseoils Conference and returns with a selection of the above, plus news of the first snowfall of winter. Manhattan was fairtytale white on Sunday morning, and she says she walked for 30 miles, as well as dancing for eight hours straight off (after the end of the conference). With the exchange rate now slipping to $1.46 to the euro, and $2.03 to the pound, it looks like they rode the crest of the shopping wave.
(Thanks to Shelley for the photo.)