It sounds like the first National Electronics Week South Africa proved to be a very successful event, with 1700 visitors attending over the two days. This is an impressive number, given the size of the industry in South Africa. The organisers also managed to sell out all exhibition space, ensuring that the event was not only successful, but presumably pretty profitable: not a bad achievement for the first year of a show in the current environment!

Tags: National Electronics Week, Shows and Events, South Africa

SPS/IPC/DRIVES 2010 has issued a Call for Papers that cover topics including automation, industrial communications or drives. To encourage more young engineers to participate, an award will be to the best paper from an engineer less than 36 years old. It’s great to see that the prize is not just a trophy: the winner will receive a cash award of €1000.

Submission is via the show website, and proposals must be received by 26 April 2010.

Tags: Awards, Call for Papers, Germany, Shows and Events

The general feeling at Embedded World this year was that the show was a genuine success, and this has been confirmed by the official statistics. With 730 exhibitors (up 4% on last year) and 18,350 visitors (up 16%), organisers and exhibitors should be delighted with the event.

This year was the first time that the show included a student day – Thursday, the last day of the event. This also proved to be successful, attracting 700 students to boost last-day numbers, achieving a balance between boosting attendance whilst avoiding swamping the show with students.

Napier also had a great set of editor meetings with our clients at the event, proving that – in Germany at least – shows are still a great way to meet the press as well as to connect with prospective customers.

Tags: Embedded World, Germany, Shows and Events

The organisers of the SAME 2010 Forum and the SAFA 2010 Workshop have issued a call for papers.

SAME invites technical papers covering System and Design; Integration; Security; Tools and Methodologies; Process and Manufacturing; Prototyping;  Verification; Validation; or Test, whereas the SAFA 2010 Workshop focuses on techniques around formal analysis.

Abstracts must be submitted by 17:00 CET on 19th April 2010, and full submission details are available on the website.

Tags: Call for Papers, France, Shows and Events

With Embedded World only a week away, it was great to get some positive news about a couple of events. The Embedded Masterclass has more workshops planned for 2010 than last year, they have moved the southern leg of the event to the new Hilton at Reading because they needed more space, and the organisers tell me they think they may even exceed last year’s record attendee numbers.

Engineers in Scandinavia are looking forward to a new event, S.E.E. (Scandinavian Electronics Event), which will be held in Stockholm from 13th to 15th April 2010. The event is planned to be held every two years, and I’m delighted that there are still event organisers prepared to create new shows.

It looks like the first S.E.E. will be a success as the organisers tell me that around 250 companies will be exhibiting! They also have some great new ideas for the show, including areas where stands are not allowed to have high separating walls, creating a very open environment. They have also chosen to place seminars and special exhibitions and displays right in the middle of the show, on an “activity street” that cuts through the middle of the exhibition. Putting the seminars and activities that draw visitors in the middle of the hall is really important to draw people past the exhibition stands, and can only help increase the meetings on exhibitors’ stands.

Tags: SEE, Shows and Events, Sweden

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 was delighted that the next Silicon Southwest event will be just down the road from Napier at NXP’s Southampton campus. The event will be held on 19th March 2010, and is titled “The Future is Analog!”. Representatives from NXP, EDA Solutions, Cascoda and Intralink will be speaking, and the delegate fee is just £10.00. Registration for “The Future is Analog!” is available online.

Tags: Shows and Events, 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

It’s great to see our friends at Advanced Rework Technology (ART) will be running IPC training at National Electronics Week SA 2010.

Tags: National Electronics Week, Shows and Events, South Africa

Future Horizons will hold their 2010 Industry Forecast Seminar on Tuesday 26th Jan, 2010 at the Hilton London Olympia Hotel, London, England. Amongst the questions they promise to answer are:

• What will the shape of the recovery be … V, W, U, Nike or crash?
• What is the real status of investment, capacity versus demand?
• Will past growth history repeat itself in 2010-2011?
• Will ASPs ever recover or continue to fall?
• What will happen to demand when the stimulus funding stops?
• Will demand hold or will it slip back into decline?
• Will Fab-lite prove the answer or an alchemist’s illusion?

Tags: EPE, Future Horizons, Shows and Events, UK

The organisers of National Electronics Week have issued a call for papers. Taking the “keep it simple” approach, all you need to do is email your ideas for paper to the organisers.

Tags: National Electronics Week, Shows and Events, UK

Fiera Milano Editore organise some great seminars in Italy. Here is a list of the events they have planned for 2010:

• MC4 – Motion Control for – 12th March 2010, Palazzo dei Congressi – Bologna
• VfM – Vision for Manufacturing – 16th June 2010, Hotel Parma e Congressi – Parma
• Control & Communication – second half of September 2010, Milan
• IA – Industrial Automation Forum – October 2010, location TBD
• Focus Embedded – November 2010, location TBD

Tags: Italy, Shows and Events