“Unlike electronica USA, CeBIT America, and Comdex, our show runs solely to benefit the industry and to provide cost-effective exhibition opportunities for our exhibitors,” believes Michael Buscher, president of Assembleon, and one of the event’s founders. The upcoming Apex will take place February 22 to 24, 2005, in Anaheim/CA, and will feature an enhanced technical conference with the collocation of Electronic Circuit World Convention, sponsored by the trade associations in the World Electronic Circuit Council. The conference will include the presentation of 115 papers in 40 sessions, plus 40 poster sessions.
According to a report compiled from an attendees’ survey of the last Apex, 71% of the visitors represented OEMs, EMS and interconnect manufacturing services (IMS/)PCB companies as well as government/military officials, while the remainder consisted of consultants, manufacturing representatives, suppliers and others. Of these, 90% saw themselves in the position to either recommend, influence or specify products, or to make purchasing decisions. In addition, the audience was interested in inspection systems (39%), automated test equipment (36%), reflow and wave soldering systems (34%) and component preparation and placement equipment (27%).
The good results from the 2004 exhibition/conference carried over into the space selection for the 2005 show which will have around 150,000 net square feet of exhibit space. “The mood in the electronics industry remains upbeat,” stated Mary MacKinnon. “The commitment to the North American electronics market is reflected in the number of companies that have selected Printed Circuits Expo, Apex and the Designers Summit, as their preferred trade show for 2005.”
Four keynote speakers have been named for Apex 2005, and each address is free to all visitors. Michael Marks, CEO of Flextronics, will kick off the first day of the exhibition on Tuesday, February 22. He will talk about his experiences at the EMS company of how he was able to propel the business from 22nd place to an industry leader in revenue, profits and market capitalization. On the next day, February 23, market researcher Walt Custer will offer an insightful presentation on the economy in the electronics industry. Jim McElroy, CEO of NEMI, the US National Electronics Manufacturing Initiative, will present the findings on their roadmap on February 24. The roadmap details forecasts on the manufacturing needs of the electronics industry and helps identify key technology and infrastructure developments. Burt Rutan, founder of Scaled Composites and SpaceShipOne, will share his experiences on winning the $10m prize at the closing ceremony of February 24. He will share his visions of space travel and a technology that enabled the first privately manned space flight. Gerhard B. Wolski
EPP EUROPE 405
