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With three decades of technological advancements, DesignCon has established itself as a premier conference for electronics design. Susan Deffree, the group event coordinator, reflects on the event's rich history and the exciting developments for its 30th anniversary.
Marcy LaRont: Suzanne, tell me about the show's origin and how DesignCon has developed over the years. What's really exciting about this 30th year?
Suzanne Deffree: DesignCon started as a Hewlett Packard (HP) event focused on HP products and technologies and grew up through Hewlett Packard’s divisions and spin-offs. The HP group, which is now Keysight, contributed to a lot to DesignCon’s growth.
Originally, the show focused on interconnects, but it's grown to be everything that touches the chip on the board in any way. We've got semiconductors and microelectronics, we've got PCBs, and we've got interconnects—which are still very important. Test and measurement, of course, is also at that foundational level of every electronic device in our world—your iPhone, your refrigerator, your car, anything that's got electronics in it, starts at DesignCon.
LaRont: I just listened to the keynote speaker from NVIDIA, which was really interesting. What else did you plan for this year?
Deffree: We planned 15 conference tracks, our Chip Head Theater, and our daily keynotes. We've had panel discussions every afternoon and those were packed. We had one with over 200 people in it yesterday and that was amazing. We also had about 170 suppliers on the expo floor.
We also planned several events specifically to celebrate the 30th anniversary. We had a lounge on the expo floor where you could pick up an alumni ribbon to show off how long you've been affiliated with DesignCon. We also had a timeline on display showing the progress of 30 years of tech. It highlighted this chip or that testing technology. But then it also has bigger influences like the iPod or a space shuttle launch. Our tech is in those big events. Our tech made those advances possible. The engineers of DesignCon made all that possible.
We also did giveaways for the 30th anniversary, and had a fun scavenger hunt. We linked up with a few new partners; IEEE EMC had its Women In Engineering group on Thursday afternoon with three sessions, including a reception about career advancement. Everyone was invited; it wasn’t a women-only program.
LaRont: I attended some of the technical tracks today, and walked the show floor. It was very busy down there, and that’s great to see. What did you attendance numbers look like?
Deffree: I don't have official numbers, but I know we were up significantly in pre-registration and based on the floor attendance, it was a very good attendee year and a great experience, too.
LaRont: That's great. Congratulations on your 30th DesignCon event. Thank you for all you do.
Deffree: Marcy, it’s good to see you here. Thank you.
