It took longer than expected, but only by a couple weeks. PCEA is now the owner of a number of publications, websites, educational events and trade shows for printed circuit engineers.

In January, we completed the acquisition of several longtime and popular brands from UP Media Group, including PCD&F, CIRCUITS ASSEMBLY, the PCB2Day webinar series, the Printed Circuit University online education platform, the PCB Chat podcast series, and of course, the leading technical conferences and trade shows for design engineers: PCB West and PCB East. It’s the latter one I’ll look at today.

Last month’s discussion focused on training opportunities. We looked at developments at the college level and new certification programs like the Printed Circuit Engineering Professional course offered by PCE-EDU, the brainchild of a team of veteran design engineers led by Mike Creeden and Rick Hartley.

This month, we dive into the upcoming PCB East technical conference. For the uninitiated, PCB East is the Eastern US version of the popular PCB West trade show. It debuted in the 2000s, then went on hiatus after the industry downturn in 2007-08. At the urging of several companies and individual design engineers, it was set to return last year, until the pandemic got in the way.