Tradition is important in Europe, so it’s nice to see the Elektra Awards extend the entry deadline again. Entries are now due by 23rd July 2010.

Tags: Awards, Electronics Weekly, UK

The design of Electronics Weekly has been updated to a “cleaner and more modern” look. Interestingly one of the changes is to reduce the number of stories highlighted on the front page – presumably to encourage more people to read through the magazine in a linear fashion.

The 23rd to 29th June 2010 issue is available here: http://cde.cerosmedia.com/1P4c1f3e1febf94979.cde

Tags: Digital Magazines and Print Publications, Electronics Weekly, UK

I remember the old days when publications could rely on recruitment to generate pages of print advertising. With the move to online recruitment, this is no longer true, but it’s good to see that some publications are still innovating to try to keep hold of as big a share of the recruitment spend as possible.

Electronics weekly has just updated its jobs site, with the aim of making it easier to find jobs that better match your interests. In addition to related jobs, the site will also use behaviour of other site users to recommend possible roles ("People who applied for this job, also applied for…").

Tags: Electronics Weekly, Online, UK

Electronics Weekly and EE Times Group, the organisers of Embedded Live, have issued a call for papers. The conference and exhibition will take place at Earls Court, London, on 20th to 21st October 2010, and they hope to run more than 40 classes in 50-minute, 90-minute, 2.5-hour, or full day formats.

Abstracts are use by 7th May, and information on how to submit is available on the Embedded Live website.

Tags: Call for Papers, EE Times, Electronics Weekly, Embedded Live, UK

In December Electronics Weekly and EE Times Group announced they would partner on a UK show in 2010, and that show has finally got a name: Embedded Live. In our industry it’s nice to get a simple name that is real words and not an abbreviation. Although the UK is probably the toughest market in Europe for trade shows, I really hope that the combination of EW and EE Times group will be strong enough to make this event a success.

Tags: EE Times, Electronics Weekly, Shows and Events, UK

I’m delighted to see that Electronics Weekly has launched a blog about test and certification that is written by our client TRaC. The engineers at TRaC have superb knowledge about this subject, which is not surprising considering they are the leading UK test and certification company. They’ve been supplying posts to EW for some time, so the blog already has some fascinating posts.

Tags: Blogs, Clients, Electronics, Electronics Weekly, News About Napier, Online, UK

I’m told that the joint venture electronics show organised by Reed and EE Times Group (formerly TechInsights) will soon have a new name (I’m betting it will include “ESC” and “Live”). The two companies have already been working on the show, which thankfully will move from Farnborough to Earls Court, and I was particularly interested in the plans to encourage exhibitors to take seminar rooms to run presentations, tutorials and labs. ESC has always has a good conference, and if vendors can run their own tutorials, hopefully this will not only encourage higher attendance, but also mean that more visitors spend time on the show floor.

Tags: Electronics, Electronics Weekly, ESC, ESE, Reed, Shows and Events, TechInsights, UK

Thanks to all at Electronics Weekly for putting on such a good show last night for the annual Elektra Awards. We had several clients shortlisted, with Microchip walking away with the Semiconductor Product of the Year – Digital award. Many congratulations to Microchip and all our clients who were shortlisted.

Tags: Awards, Clients, Electronics, Electronics Weekly, Microchip, News About Napier

At last night’s Elektra Awards, Paul Briggs, Group Publisher for Reed Technology Group, announced that Electronics Weekly and UBM are to form a strategic partnership for the Embedded Systems Conference and Exhibition, to be held on October 20-21st 2010 at Earls Court. A couple of months ago this partnership would have been almost unthinkable, but with the sale of EE Times, it seems almost anything is possible.

Of course it is good news that there will be two major companies behind the event next year, and I really hope it works. It does, however, need some radical thinking. Neither company generated large attendances at events this year, and more worryingly they didn’t appear to be able to attract big name exhibitors who must sign up early to encourage smaller exhibitors and visitors to attend.

The move will presumably see National Electronics Week refocus on its core electronics manufacturing sector, which may even increase the quality of the visitors, although they will have to work had to secure strong support from the media.

Overall it’s a good thing that we have commitment to ESC2010, but if it is to be a success the organisers need to think radically. Today exhibition success is not about achieving a particular revenue per square meter of booth space. It’s all about getting big-name companies who will not only attract visitors, but also proactively market the event to their databases, and provide compelling reasons to attend, such as running classes on the show floor. I hope that EW and UBM can see the benefit of this, and are able to announce commitments to exhibit from several major manufacturers.

Tags: Awards, EE Times, Electronics, Electronics Weekly, ESC, National Electronics Week, Reed, Shows and Events

The organisers of National Electronics Week (NEW) were busy canvassing exhibitors and visitors at this year’s show, and will surprise no one with their decision to cut the show down to two days in 2010, saving exhibitors’ time and money. Perhaps more controversial is the decision to move to the NEC – my informal conversations at the show suggested that exhibitors were split on whether it would be right to move the event, with the production equipment suppliers more enthusiastic about a move to the Midlands.

NEW will also be held earlier in the year, running from the 18th – 19th May 2010, instead of June. This date fits nicely between Bank Holidays and is before the schools’ half-term break, so should maximise the number of people who could attend.

Perhaps the most important thing is that NEW will happen in 2010 – with the tough economic climate, the recent introduction of NEW and the reluctance of UK engineers to attend shows, it’s great to see exhibitors commit to next year’s show. Let’s hope the change of date and location and the more compact schedule not only encourages more visitors, but also is the incentive exhibitors need to attend.

Tags: Electronics Weekly, Shows and Events, UK

I liked this idea from Electronics Weekly. A simple mashup of R&D locations in the UK that are taken from press releases with Google Maps gives you a great view of where research and development activity is happening in the UK.

Tags: Electronics Weekly, Online

And then there were three… Elektroniknet and Elektronik Praxis both offer pay-per-lead campaigns and now Electronics Weekly has joined in, offering to supply a stream of qualified leads at a fixed cost per lead. The level of qualification and the cost varies hugely – there is roughly a 30 to 1 ratio between the most expensive and cheapest options, so you need to be careful that you are picking the option that delivers the best value leads for your needs.

Pay-per-lead is an approach we’ve used with several IT clients, and it was pretty inevitable that publishers in our sector would follow. But the approach has pitfalls for electronic component vendors.

When we work with IT clients, they often have systems with an entry level cost of several tens of thousands of dollars, and the difference between a small and large client might only be a factor of ten.

Many of our electronics component clients have products that sell for a couple of dollars or less, and the difference between small volume (e.g. a proof of concept) and high volume can be a factor of 100,000 or more. Setting the qualification questions is therefore more important, but can also be much more challenging.

If you’re interested in pay-per-lead, and would like to talk to an agency that has run these campaigns, why not send me an email?

Tags: Electronics Weekly, Online