-
- News
- Books
Featured Books
- design007 Magazine
Latest Issues
Current IssueLevel Up Your Design Skills
This month, our contributors discuss the PCB design classes available at IPC APEX EXPO 2024. As they explain, these courses cover everything from the basics of design through avoiding over-constraining high-speed boards, and so much more!
Opportunities and Challenges
In this issue, our expert contributors discuss the many opportunities and challenges in the PCB design community, and what can be done to grow the numbers of PCB designers—and design instructors.
Embedded Design Techniques
Our expert contributors provide the knowledge this month that designers need to be aware of to make intelligent, educated decisions about embedded design. Many design and manufacturing hurdles can trip up designers who are new to this technology.
- Articles
- Columns
Search Console
- Links
- Events
||| MENU - design007 Magazine
Light Reading: Thoughts on Attending Conferences
December 31, 1969 |Estimated reading time: 6 minutes
Conference attendance can be a very efficient use of one's time. It can also be a total waste of time and money. The most important aspect of attendance is the networking opportunities. Classes, expositions and seeing hardware are all very important, but if you skip the networking aspect, you are missing the entire point of the show. Case in point - a younger colleague of mine went to a laser conference for the first time and did not attend either the first or second night social events. In fact, I hardly saw her anywhere at the conference at all. When asked, she responded, "I don't know anybody, so I didn't go." Fortunately, she did not work for me!<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" />
In order to maximize the experience, it is essential to choose the right conferences - both to attend to and where to exhibit. To simplify things, let's confine the discussion to attendance. We can view things from the perspective of geography and market. Geographically, attending a "local" conference can be a very inexpensive way of networking. Attending the larger national events, on the other hand, usually requires a much greater investment in time and money -- and probably a better sales job to your manager on why you need to attend -- requiring much more and longer term planning. This is much easier to do if you can justify the trip by doing other things (customer visits, service calls, etc.) while "in the vicinity." If your business is like mine, this is easier to do when the conference is in or near a major industrial city - L.A., <?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" />San Francisco, Chicago, N.Y.C., Boston, Minneapolis. How much other "local" business do you do in Orlando or Las Vegas or Reno?
In the interconnect world, the major shows in the U.S. include IPC Expo and APEX, PCB Design Conference East and West, and DesignCon. Then you have to add key international shows in Japan, China, Taiwan and Europe. Again, for the sake of simplicity, let's restrict the discussion to the U.S. domestic shows, although internationally these may not presently be the most relevant. Note the troubles that IPC has been having getting a workable and affordable venue the last few years -- even after combing the two events. Enough has been said about the L.A. debacle, so let's consider the new venue in Las Vegas. From a personal point of view, and considering attendee desire, it will not be hard to get people interested in attending this show, but travel approvals may be harder to get. Also, I wonder whether there will be any real "after hours" networking as everyone chases their wildest dreams. Here is a little hint about how to get your boss to approve your travel -- fly into L.A .and visit some customers in the Southern California, then drive to Las Vegas, which is only about a 3.5 hour drive IF you drive it early in the morning or late at night. This way you get to attend the junket in Las Vegas, but you can say with a straight face that the real reason for the trip is to visit West Coast clients. It's the "while I'm in the area, I should go to APEX" line of reasoning.
The PCB Design shows, East in the Spring and West in the Fall, have been active for many years, but starting next year there will be a major change of venues in that East (which used to be in the Boston area until last year) will be moved to the Midwest in the Spring and West will stay at the same place (Santa Clara), but will move to the Fall. Show organizers had better do a good job of publicity on this! I was told the moves were made to avoid the scheduling conflict of having Expo, West and DesignCon all within a couple of months on the West Coast.
How about the new IPC Midwest Conference? I think this may be a very good venue and I expect to see good attendance. It is easy to arrange a trip to Chicago from just about anywhere in the country. The venue is easy to reach (although not from downtown where it is expensive, difficult to reach the conference center and very inconvenient - but the Blues Bars are worth it!), convenient for flyers and drivers, and in a reasonably priced area. So, wearing my Nostradamus hat, I predict a shift of the major interconnect shows in the U.S. to the Midwest.
Since my business revolves around lasers, I would like to say a few things about the major laser-related shows. In this area, the U.S. market is still dominant and several of the major, relevant international shows are held in the U.S. CLEO (Conference on Lasers and ElectroOptics) is sponsored by the Optical Society of America and is held in late spring at alternating East Coast (Baltimore) and West Coast venues. This conference is a more fundamental one than others, traditionally focusing more on the laser itself and related hardware and scientific experimentation than on applications. SPIE hosts the Photonics West show held in San Jose every January and this show is both much bigger and also more applications-oriented. The Laser Institute of America holds ICALEO (International Congress on Applications of Lasers and ElectroOptics) in October in alternating East/West Coast venues. This conference is very international in flavor and attracts the top scientists in the laser applications field worldwide. It's a setting of formal talks and discussions mixed with planned social activities and networking opportunities. Finally, on the international scene, the laser conference in Munich is held every odd year, and Interopto is held outside of Tokyo in Makuhari every year in July. Decent show - terrible time to visit Japan, unless you like 100 degree-plus heat in almost 100% humidity.
All of the above don't even count the many market-specific niche shows. One could spend all one's time doing nothing but going to exhibitions (and many people do!). However, shows can be a very effective way of seeing and mingling with current and potential customers and colleagues if the proper ones are attended and proper plans are made in advance to maximize return on investment. So, enjoy the upcoming travel season and - see you in Schaumburg.
Ronald Schaeffer is Chief Executive Officer of PhotoMachining, Inc. He has been involved in laser manufacture and materials processing for over 20 years, working in and starting small companies. He has over 100 publications, including a monthly column in CircuiTree, and is currently on the Editorial Board of Industrial Laser Solutions. He is also on the Board of Directors of the Laser Institute of America and is affiliated with the New England Board of Higher Education. He has a Ph.D. in Physical Chemistry from LehighUniversity and did graduate work at the University of Paris, after which he worked for several major laser companies. He is a U.S. Army veteran of the 172nd Mountain Brigade and the 101st Airborne division. In his spare time he farms, collects antique pocket watches, plays guitar and rides motorcycle.