SCHAUMBURG, IL -- Top members of the IPC Apex committee revealed that next year's show will feature hospitality suites. IPC policy has heretofore banned the suites and related "commercial" activity.

During the IPC Midwest show here last week, Jeff Timms of Siemens and Scott Wischoffer of Fuji told Circuits Assembly that the Apex trade show subcommittee has decided to revive the vendor hospitality suites for the 2008 event.

Vendor suites have been outlawed at IPC events for nearly the entire history of the association. However, Timms and Wischoffer said sentiment was strong among vendors and attendees to permit the suites.

Past Apex shows have featured all-inclusive receptions jointly sponsored by several companies. These all-in-one affairs have come under fire for the cost and inability to accommodate convenient networking.

Yet not all suppliers see the move as beneficial. Some recalled the excessive cost of other trade shows, like Nepcon, where vendors vied to outdo each other, and spent tens of thousands of dollars in the process. But those days are over, said Timms and Wischoffer, who cited the mature industry and lower margins among equipment suppliers as strong fiscal governors on such behavior.

It is not clear whether the IPC Expo trade show subcommittee has also relented on the ban. IPC Expo runs concurrently with Apex.

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