Circuits Assembly Online Magazine - 15th PCB West Attracted Targeted Design Audience

ATLANTA — UP Media Group’s 15th anniversary PCB Design Conference West, held March 26-31 in Santa Clara, provided over 45 exhibitors with a robust, targeted audience of attendees enjoying the “Education, Inspiration and Solutions” promised by this year’s conference theme. This year, the number of conference attendees taking courses during the six-day event increased by 12%. In addition, 52% of conference attendees and 33% of exhibition-only attendees were first-time PCB West attendees.

“I am thrilled that this year’s increase in conference attendees, especially when coupled with the number of first-time attendees, enabled us to provide our exhibitors with the kind of qualified attendees that they most want to reach. This translated into excellent exhibitor re-signs for PCB West 2007,” said UPMG president Pete Waddell.

“I also was happy to see so many exhibition-only attendees take advantage of the free technical sessions and Exhibitor Showcase presentations that made ‘Free Tuesday’ truly special,” continued Waddell. “The show floor buzzed all day—right through the Opening Night Reception. That same level of excitement continued into the evening at our Casino Night Party, where exhibitors and attendees networked and competed at the blackjack, craps, roulette and Texas Hold ‘Em tables.”

This year’s inductee into the PCB Top Gun Hall of Fame is CAD Applications Engineer Julian Ungureanu of Cisco Systems in San Jose. Held annually at PCB West, PCB Top Gun contestants are put through a stringent battery of tests, including a written exam, personal interviews and an actual board design. The top scorer(s) are inducted into the Hall of Fame at the conference, where they receive a plaque and a Top Gun-style leather flight jacket.

For the first time, the PCB Design Conferences awarded scholarships to attend the entire six-day technical conference program for free. Scholarship applicants were asked to write an essay expressing what they would gain from attending the conference. The PCB West 2006 Scholarship recipients were: Tom Burek with Ametek/Dixson in Grand Junction, CO, and Malik Nisar with Comcept (Pvt.) Ltd. in Punjab, Pakistan.

PCB West 2007 will be March 25-30 in Santa Clara. UPMG’s next trade show is PCB Design Conference East on Sept. 25-29 in Durham, NC (pcbeast.com).