BANNOCKBURN, IL -- The IPC today will announce plans to produce an electronics assembly trade show outside Chicago next fall.

The show will take place the week of September 24, 2007, in Schaumburg, IL, a Chicago suburb. It is backed by the SMEMA Council, a group of major assembly equipment OEMs and an adjunct of IPC. The official name of the show is the IPC Midwest Conference & Exhibition, although some are casually referring to it as Apex Midwest.

The new show will likely touch off a battle for exhibitors: The Canon Communications-produced Assembly Technology Expo takes place the same week in nearby Rosemont. Furthermore, the SMTA, once a partner on AT Expo, has split off and will produce its own show, SMTAI, in Orlando two weeks later.

Although IPC has been in negotiations with SMTA over a possible joint effort on the new Schaumburg show, at this time no agreement has been signed.

According to a longtime member, the SMEMA Council has discussed the possibility of a Midwest show "off and on" for several years. The decision by SMTA to exit the AT Expo show -- one made after ownership of the show changed and Canon decided not to continue paying SMTA a large annual stipend, reportedly some $250,000 -- opened the door for IPC to develop a competing event.

The IPC board signed off on the deal during its regularly scheduled meeting in late November.

In a press statement this morning, IPC president Denny McGuirk took a shot at AT Expo, stating, “Our industry demands an exhibition in the Midwest with primary focus on electronics manufacturing; not an exhibition viewed as an afterthought."

The trade group's longstanding fall meeting, known since the 1990s as IPCWorks, will be integrated into the Midwest show.

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