NPRA 2010 attendance up - official

I bumped into my old friend Charlie Drevna, chairman of NPRA and subject of my pre-NPRA "curtain raiser" interviews in previous years, at the Welcome Party on Sunday evening. He was keen to tell me that the previous communications manager, who had never shown a great fondness for the Blog, was gone. The new incumbent, who will take over in April, will be someone the Blog will enjoy dealing with, Charlie said, and that was very welcome news.

NPRA had previously informed ICIS that the official attendance for this year was slightly up on last year at 2,400-2,500, and the lobby of the Marriott Rivercenter (photo) was definitely busier than last year.

After the Welcome Party, the Blog headed for the India Evening, where the great and good were entertained to an evening of presentations and a very late dinner of curiously non-Indian food, as part of the promotion for the next APIC conference which will be held in Mumbai. The Blog is now the proud owner of a lapel pin of the interlinked flags of India and the USA, and a rather stylish silver Sabic pin - both the subject of much envy amongst traders later in the Hyatt bar.