Feeling the Magic of a Show Opener at IPC APEX EXPO 2024

Estimated reading time: 2 minutes

As we walked the show floor at IPC APEX EXPO on Tuesday, April 9, we were struck by the subtle differences in the feel of the show floor between Anaheim and the previous home in San Diego. Somehow, the large booths seem less dominant, and the smaller booths seem more prominent here in the shadow of Disneyland where everything feels just a little bit magical.

Tuesday’s proceedings kicked off with a keynote presentation by former Disney Imagineer Paul Bailey. He shared inspiring stories of how he came to work for Disney, including images of him growing up obsessed with “Star Wars” and a desire to someday grow up and work with those films.

He especially talked about how to achieve a “moonshot” project, something that can seem insurmountable when first taking it on. He used the example of his first movie, “Dante’s Peak,” and the hundreds of people it took to build models that were used in the movie to simulate a volcanic eruption.

The keynote was followed by the traditional ribbon-cutting ceremony to open the show floor. The lay of the show floor is a bit different from San Diego, but the aisles felt full, especially by early afternoon, when many attendees completed their technical sessions and committee meetings and began visiting the booths on the show floor.

Highlights of the day included the IPC Design Competition, where four of the five competitors worked on their designs remotely. With one big projector screen at the front of the room, and several large monitors, the competition was overseen by IPC’s Kris Moyer and Patrick Crawford. They answered questions from competitors while sometimes admiring the way the designs were being put together. Winners will be announced on Thursday.

There was also a show floor reception at the close of the day, followed by a Women in Electronics event that featured a panel of female engineers ranging in age, experience, and situations. They reflected on the need to create a work-life balance when it comes to managing expectations at work and at home.

On Monday night, April 8, as we looked out over the Anaheim skyline from the convention center’s third-floor terrace, the Electronics Circuits World Conference (ECWC) reception was held at IPC APEX EXPO.

Held once every three years, this international PCB symposium is hosted in a different global city each time. This year, IPC is hosting ECWC16. Formed in 1998, the World Electronics Circuits Council (WECC) is a strategic partnership of ten international trade organizations for PCBs, including IPC, CPCA, HKPCA, EIPC, ELCINA, IPCA, JPCA, TPCA, KPCA, and THPCA, representing the U.S., China, Hong Kong, Europe, Taiwan, India, Korea and Thailand.

The organizations cooperate on standards, market research, marketing, resource development, environmental issues, world trade, and economic/political affairs. Because of this year’s merging of IPC APEX EXPO and ECWC16, the quality and level of the technology and special sessions may be unparalleled with so much access to global expertise.

In his opening remarks, John Mitchell, president and CEO of IPC, said it well, remarking that we are better together as he stressed the importance of collaboration and partnership between and amongst all of our associations.

Held on the Pacific Terrace on Monday night, the Newcomers’ reception was packed with first-timers, including a number of young engineers. Appetizers, beer and wine were served, while young engineers mingled with returning attendees and IPC staff.