SMTA Chapters: A Bold, New Direction

Estimated reading time: 1 minute

Since joining SMTA as director of chapter relations about seven months ago, Alicia Yao has had some immediate and definite impact. Her background includes management in the luxury product retail space which, if one reflects on it, provides philosophical parallels to customer relationship building in electronics assembly. In this interview, she speaks about the menu of technical resources available through SMTA at both the chapter level and at headquarters.

Nolan Johnson: SMTA has a strong chapter-based structure with many local working groups where knowledge and information are seamlessly shared between the corporate office and chapters. What is SMTA’s vision and mission when it comes to technical resources?

Alicia Yao: We approach our offerings differently for users vs. suppliers. For our users, we want to provide the most up-to-date technical resources, including webinars, and in-person events at our expos and conferences. Suppliers want to see the new technology in addition to technical resources and having networking opportunities. It's a good way to stay connected to your community and for our up-and-coming young professionals and students to find mentorship and career opportunities.

Johnson: Chapter meetings will often have a guest speaker. How involved is SMTA in identifying or arranging chapter guest speakers

Yao: The local chapters use their personal connections to find speakers, but we will help them if needed. We have a database of speakers from prior SMTA conferences and meetings. Each time someone speaks at an event, they are added to our database. Speakers can then select topics in their areas of expertise. Our board of directors is great for providing speakers and topics as well.

Johnson: That's a great resource.

Yao: One of our projects this past year was to clean up that database and look for trending topics. We also confirmed with speakers whether they wanted to remain on the database so that it remains an even more effective tool for the chapters.

Johnson: Have you found any additional topics in that review process?

Yao: AI is an upcoming topic trend, including how companies can incorporate AI into their everyday procedures. Reliability in harsh environments remains an ongoing and very popular topic.

To read the entire interview, which originally appeared in the February 2025 SMT007 Magazine, click here.