Estimated reading time: 5 minutes

Target Condition: Livin’ in a PCB Stakeholder’s Paradise

A few months ago, I was offered a unique opportunity to serve as the AltiumLive Connect 2022 show host for the virtual event during the last full week of January.

It started with an idea I had during a meeting with Altium last October, to create a musical promo for the annual summit. I love to write songs and I’ve written a few which have been used commercially. But for a technical electronics trade show, I knew that I would have to reach far outside my normal styles of composition.

I thought of my time working for Prototron Circuits in Seattle where I had the chance to have lunch with Anthony Ray, aka, Sir Mix-a-lot, one of their celebrity customers. (Hopefully, that’s another great story for another time.) I proposed, “Perhaps I could rap about it?”

I reviewed some notes and interviews about the theme and goals for the AltiumLive summit and the IPC APEX EXPO. I listened to an inspiring interview of Altium’s Chief Ecosystem Officer and head of Altium Nexar, Ted Pawela, and IPC’s Vice President of Standards and Technology, Dave Bergman¹.

They spoke of the Altium Summit’s theme of “Connect” and IPC APEX EXPO’s theme of “Digital Transcendence.” Both organizations have been working hard to aim their messaging and educational programs toward PCB designers. They have executed their own dedicated missions to get the wave of new PCB engineers prepared to understand PCB design and how the profession will be transforming soon as the trend for automated manufacturing moves forward. So, it was beautiful for me to hear that these two organizations decided to work together to reach all our PCB design and manufacturing stakeholders by working as partners and, in essence, coalescing the two show experiences.

The two show themes struck me that same evening.

To understand digital transcendence in context of the entire electronics PCB industry, PCB designers must learn to initiate design in a way that will digitally connect with all the other PCB industry stakeholders concurrently. Through the standardization of data formatting, PCB layouts of the future will be accessible and automatically modified by other project stakeholders. Commodity stakeholders will be connected with manufacturing engineering stakeholders, and design and manufacturing engineering will be connected with test engineering, for example. All will be able to work concurrently from live data within a project ecosystem to make required modifications without having to engage the original PCB engineers and designers who initiated the design.

In turn, designers will be freed up to move forward to initiate new designs while incorporating real-time feedback from the previous designs. The process of PCB design layout is envisioned to transition from being run by a single layout stakeholder with a traditionally limited scope of peripheral stakeholder capability, to one of data-driven transparency for all stakeholders concurrently. Design for manufacturing will transition to a paradigm of designing with manufacturing—and sales, supplier management, purchasing, and other key stakeholders who fill equally important roles during project development and on through production phases.

So, considering the challenge of creating a musical promo inspired by my evening realization, would I be able to find my inner “gangstah?” Could I rap about what to expect and experience at these two shows which would serve to shine as an example of international industry collaboration during the week of January 24?

Of course! I wrote down the main verse of my rap:

“So, let’s all connect, c’mon people, let’s reflect on the meaning of digital transcendence. Catchin’ how design and manufacturing combine.”

I gave it my best shot. I had fun recording the segments and the soundtrack. A couple of weeks before the show, the video was approved and “dropped” onto social media January 13².

As many of you know, editorial deadlines require me to submit this column well in advance of the publication date. Truth be told, I am writing to you a week earlier than the events I am describing will have occurred. I am filled with excitement and anticipation, but I really don’t know how it’s all going to play out. Let me try this. Here are some of my goals to accomplish in San Diego and be sure to read my review in Real Time with… IPC APEX EXPO Show & Tell Magazine.

If all goes well, and it usually does, I’ll be contributing interviews and perspectives on my experience encountering the sights and especially the people who came together to make this unique event happen in this way this year. Deal?

Seek out this month’s Show & Tell Magazine edition. I consider this a superb, custom boutique publication which does an outstanding job of highlighting the vibe of the exhibitors and attendees at IPC APEX EXPO. There is where you can read how I did in meeting my targets, along with all the I-Connect007 contributing editors’ articles, interviews, and coverage of what is billed to be the largest electronics show in North America focused on printed board design and fabrication, electronics assembly, and test.

Did I meet the target conditions listed below?

• Attend some of the APEX professional development courses
• Meet, interview, and even sign a quick tech-song with APEX keynote speaker and CBS tech correspondent David Pogue
• Interview and thank the IPC education committee and the participants of the PCB design layout competition for all their hard work and raising the need for designer education
• Crash the Women in Electronics event, meet Jackie Mattox, and hear inspiring reactions to all that happens there
• Walk the APEX show floor, ask, and get answers about where CFX is going
• Meet automated assembly equipment stakeholders
• Connect via live stream with all the AltiumLive speakers, thank them, and ask them lots of questions from our livestream audience
• Connect and make good friends with at least 20 PCB stakeholders I have never met before on AltiumLive virtual networking
• Better understand and become an evangelist for reinventing the business of electronics with Nexar and Altium 365
• Get together with I-Connect007’s Andy Shaughnessy, Nolan Johnson, and as many PCB industry folks as possible and hold spontaneous guitar jams
• Forget my NOOM regimen for a week and gorge on sushi

I have read the interview with columnist Dan Beaulieu about making the most of a trade show³. His points have stuck with me for a few years now. I think I am ready.

I have high expectations for San Diego. The trends in new technology and paradigms for product development have not slowed down. Those involved in PCB design will need to push through the present perceptions regarding DFM and design changes. More than ever, design stakeholders will not only be expected, but required, to work with and within a data-driven, tangible, collaborative, concurrent product development ecosystem.

See you next month, or maybe sooner!

References

1. AltiumLive Co-locates with IPC APEX EXPO, youtube.com, Aug. 24.
2. Register Now for AltiumLive 2022 Connect, by Kelly Dack, youtube.com, Jan. 13.
3. “Dan Beaulieu on Making the Most of a Trade Show,”PCB007 Magazine, December 2018.

This column originally appeared in the February 2022 issue of Design007 Magazine.