PestWorld East 2013 – USA moves to UAE

This was the third time this event had been held. Organised by the National Pest Management Association (NPMA) from the USA, the organisers felt the conference was a great success with more than 250 people in attendance, representing 20 countries ranging from Australia to Uganda, with obviously a strong emphasis on delegates from the Middle East.

The conference programme featured several well-known speakers from the USA. Bed bugs were, as ever, to the fore with Dr Dini Miller of Virginia State University presenting an interesting background paper on their science and biology whereas Dinesh Ramachandran of National Pest Control, Dubai and accompanied by James Nicholson of Rentokil in the Middle East providing a review of the innovation means of controlling these pests.

From the UK, Dr Alan Buckle from the University of Reading presented (on behalf of Rentokil) a paper outlining the research carried out in Libya prior to the start of the rodenticide prgramme undertaken in this country – click here to view Pest article.

One of the UK delegates, Dawn Heptinstall-Bolton, director of sales & marketing for Suterra said: “I went to a number of the seminars and found the speakers and content to be of a very high standard and well attended.”

Running alongside the conference was an exhibition featuring 19 exhibitors coming mainly from either North America or Europe. These included Bell Laboratories, AP&G, BEAP Co, Bird-X, Messina Enterprises and Termatrac from North America.

From Europe, Italy was well represented with Bleu Line and ORMA in attendance, as well as Bayer, PestWest and Silvandersson. Another company with a display was Syngenta and, as at PestEx in April, this sported the company’s new livery.

Ferhat Benyahia and Henrik Bjá¶rkqvist of Silvandersson with Middle East customers

From Europe – Aurelie Baillet of Syngenta with 
Rupert Broome of Killgerm

From their European office, Julie McMonagle of Bell Laboratories summed-up the mood of the exhibitors saying: “PestWorld East is an excellent opportunity to meet with our existing distributors from the region as well as potential new customers. Generally the exhibition this year was very busy and proved interesting for exhibitors and attendees alike. We were pleased with the level of interest in new products, for example the Protecta Evo range of bait stations.”

But like all these international events, as Dawn Heptinstall-Bolton explained: “For me the show was a great place to meet potential new distributors as the Middle East is a new market for us and the trip was a great success.”

A happy group! Left to right: Rupert Broome (Killgerm), Jonathan Peck (Killgerm), 
Dawn Heptinstall-Bolton (Suterra), Tino Panetta, Mark Westover and Julie McMonagle (Bell)

Pest would like to thank Dawn Heptinstall-Bolton for this information and the pictures.