MPA-ACE: An Adventure in the RenCen
Three days in Detroit’s iconic skyscraper
This article is an expansion on my tweets from the 2019 MPA Annual Convention and Exposition.
Every year in February, the Michigan Pharmacists Association holds its Annual Convention and Exposition at the Detroit Marriott at the GM Renaissance Center — the “RenCen” among locals.
For student pharmacists at Wayne State, this is the highlight of the academic year as it’s an affordable, easily accessible conference just a short bus or streetcar ride down Woodward. Nearly every faculty member at the College of Pharmacy is at least partly involved in putting this conference on.
Now that we’re less than a week from the start of MPA-ACE 2020, I want to share the fun. Enjoy this blog of my adventures from last year’s con.
Navigating the RenCen
The RenCen is an… interestingly designed public space. Getting hopelessly lost in this spider web of gray and neon blue towers is something of a rite of passage for tourists and new people here.
I’ve gotten to know it well over the past two years.
There are seven public levels in the RenCen: “A”, 1, 2 through 5, and 71.
Level A is where you’ll enter coming in from the Riverfront, the south side of the building. Here you’ll find the Wintergarden, home to a number of restaurants including Panera and Andiamo.
You’ll also find GM World, a small permanent display of new cars complete with video screens that placed vertically across three stories.
Nearby is the RenCen food court, a newly remodeled space with WiFi, ample seating, and electrical outlets.
You might find me studying here during the semester.
Level 1 is where you’ll enter coming in off Jefferson, the building’s main entrance. Tucked away in a corner is a neat diorama of downtown Detroit.
On this level you’ll find Granite City and, on the south side of the building hidden away between the Wintergarden atrium and the Beaubien parking deck, Potbelly.
If you’re arriving via the People Mover (and you should be, because that’s the coolest way to get here), you’ll find yourself entering the Circulation Ring on Level 2.
This is the central hub connecting the four main towers of the RenCen to the Marriott’s central, tallest tower. It’s also where you’ll find the skywalk to the Courtyard Marriott in the Millender Center, which has a breakfast restaurant and a small shop of its own.
Levels 3 through 5 are the public areas of the Marriott, and include all of the hotel’s conference rooms and banquet halls. This is where you’ll spend most of your time when attending a convention.
Last but certainly not least, Level 71, only accessible via dedicated elevator on the south side of Level 3, is home to the RenCen’s latest signature restaurants, collectively titled The Highlands.
It’s a big place, and the layout is not intuitive. The fastest way to learn it is to let yourself get lost.
Oh, and keep an eye on the escalators. They like to break.
Convention Topics
Pretty much everything pharmacy is covered at this convention, from patient advocacy to drug safety to new medical discoveries and everything in between. A particularly big draw of this convention is the career fair and exhibition hall. Last year I had a fun chat with a few employees from an EMR company about pharmacy databases and developer jobs related to the profession. Combining pharmacy with computer science skills still seems a very real possibility, especially in research institutions.
A Slice of Detroit
A lot of attendees at this convention are from other states, and in some cases even other countries. The Marriott crew makes a point to showcase a little bit of Detroit culture. Better Made Chips, local drinks, and an evening dedicated to venturing out into downtown and having fun.
(Hey, maybe this year we can throw some Detroit-style pizza into the mix?)
Pharmacy Antiques for Sale
The Michigan Pharmacy Foundation holds a silent auction every convention. A lot of vintage pharmacy items are up for bidding — last year they had a huge collection of Mallinckrodt prescription bottles. I’m excited to see what they’ll be looking to part with this year.
Mr. Speaker…
I’m a new member of SCOPA, a pharmacy advocacy group at Applebaum, so this year I’ll have a more direct role in advocating for patients and the profession during the House of Delegates session at the conference. Imagine C-SPAN on a smaller scale, and you’ve got a pretty good picture of how things go.
Learning Robert’s Rules of Order is the most interesting part of the whole thing. And in its own way, kinda fun.
There’s More to See
That’s just a small taste of the convention, there’s a lot to see and do! Exciting speakers, new friends, and tons of new things to learn. I’m ready for another year of fun.
See you this weekend.
