In the Studio: Real Time with…IPC

Estimated reading time: 2 minutes

It's almost time for IPC APEX EXPO 2019 at the San Diego Convention Center, and that means another Real Time with…IPC video program bringing you interviews with the electronics industry's top movers and shakers, engineers, and managers. It's hard to believe that Real Time with…IPC has been a staple of IPC APEX EXPO since 2007.

I still remember my first Real Time with…IPC at IPC APEX EXPO 2008 in Las Vegas quite well. I had just begun doing video interviews, and to say I was a little rough is an understatement. Publisher Barry Matties had given me some training beforehand, but I was still trying to find my groove.

My first interview went along pretty well; so far, so good. Then, the engineer I was interviewing stopped talking and I couldn't think of a good follow-up question to ask. I looked around, trying to find inspiration for another question, and saw Barry raise one eyebrow at me and start smiling. We all started laughing. Finally, he said, "Don't look at me, focus on who you're interviewing."

That turned out to be good advice because an interviewer has to tune out everything except the person being interviewed, no matter where you are, and I'm usually surrounded by distractions at IPC APEX EXPO. Pick-and-place machines and vacuums always seem to be running. If we're doing a show wrap-up interview as the event is breaking down, a forklift driver will usually pull up next to us and drop a half dozen pallets. Once I tuned out the distractions, I could focus on the interview like a hunter’s gun-proofed retriever.

Then and Now

Things have certainly changed since 2008. For one thing, I’ve gotten much better at doing on-camera interviews; of course, after those first attempts, there was really nowhere to go but up.

We’ve also added a whole range of guest editors—many of them are people just like you—who conduct fantastic interviews with individuals in their segment of the industry. No matter what topic the interviewee wants to discuss, we probably have a guest editor who is familiar with that topic. Some of our guest editors have been doing Real Time with…IPC interviews for a decade, and we couldn’t do it without them.

The technology we use today is also light years ahead. In 2008, we used our big old-school camcorders that still ran on tape, and our video editing operations sometimes took well into the night. Now, we shoot interviews with digital recorders; editing is finished before the show closes each day, and most of that day’s interviews are posted on the Real Time with… site on the same day.

To read the full article, which appeared in the December 2018 issue of SMT007 Magazine, click here.