On 14 April, the Optica Foundation sponsored tables at the Colorado Photonics Expo and Gala in Broomfield, CO, USA. Nearly 200 participants and 20 exhibitors attended the event, which consisted of six sessions featuring stellar talks—about half of them given by women. The topics included aerospace and remote sensing, biomedical technology, AR/ VR, advanced manufacturing, quantum technologies and career connections.“Overall, I was very impressed,” said Optica member Carl J. Williams after attending the event. “If every local event were of this caliber, we would be smoking hot.”