Estimated reading time: 5 minutes

The Chemical Connection: Earthquakes, Astronauts, and Aquatics—A Lighter Look at the Past

IPC will host its 25th IPC APEX EXPO with the theme “Reimage the Possibilities,” in Anaheim, California, next month. It will also mark the 68th anniversary of IPC’s founding. This year’s event brings up many memories of IPC APEX EXPO’s past and former National Electronics Packaging Conferences (NEPCONs). In this column, I would like to share some of the lighter moments from my almost 50 years of exposition experiences—especially those in Anaheim.

The first thing that always comes to mind when reminiscing on past show experiences is an earthquake that occurred in the late 1980s at NEPCON West. There was a low rumbling sound, and the sets, lights, and hanging displays swayed alarmingly. I wondered if I could squeeze under the sturdy, titanium black oxide module we had on display in our booth. This certainly doesn’t qualify as a lighter moment but some of the reactions to it were. When the shaking stopped, our West Coast salesperson pointed to the northeast and declared it was a magnitude 2.8 quake with the epicenter near Barstow. He turned out to be almost spot on. I thought if earthquakes were so frequent that people could develop the ability to pinpoint their epicenters, there was no way I would ever live in California. Our Italian rep was so traumatized he spent the next two nights sleeping in his rental car in the open parking lot.

At IPC APEX EXPO 2007, where we celebrated IPC’s 50th anniversary, our booth was directly across from IPC, where they were taping interviews with industry pioneers. We watched for two days as a constant stream of elderly people came up on the the IP stage and added their wisdom and founding stories to the record. On the third day, as another elderly man came to the IPC booth, I overheard two of my colleagues wondering who this old fogey was and what he could say that was new and interesting. I soon recognized the man and told them the “old fogey” was Buzz Aldrin, the second man to walk on the moon. Complete silence followed. At least they had the grace to look embarrassed.

Occasionally, someone brings up the idea of having a live display of running water in the equipment brought to the show instead of just a static display. Usually, we reject this idea, but one year in the 1990s, we let a company debut a new liquid etch resist. They planned to demonstrate how easy it was to use to resolve very fine lines and spaces. I was somewhat apprehensive, as I was among those responsible for making sure everything ran smoothly at the show. However, this was a mild sodium carbonate solution, so even if there were minor leaks, it would be harmless. What could go wrong?

Well, on the first day of the show, someone stepped on the drain valve and broke it off, which soaked several nearby booths with 80 gallons of warm, slightly alkaline water. It wasn’t a light moment at the time, but we’ve looked back on it with amusement. However, since then, there has never again been talk of running another live water demo in our booth.

As is part of the trade show experience, many characters have come through our booth over the years, but one has remained stuck in my mind. It was soon after the first EXPO, sometime in the early 2000s. A potential customer came into the booth and started asking questions, but it was soon apparent that he knew absolutely nothing about wet processing or the electronics business. Our sales rep asked why he was at an electronics packaging exhibition. “Oh, I own several bakeries around the country,” he replied, “but I’d like to expand my investments, and I’m looking for something less complicated than the baking business to get into.” For several seconds, there was a stunned silence before everyone in earshot drifted away as unobtrusively as possible while our sales rep tried to acquaint our potential customer with reality.

Finally, while these shows are fantastic venues to meet old customers and potential new ones, they also offer opportunities to spy on your competitors, not only to see what they have that’s new and different but also to try and pick up any potentially classified or secret information.

One year, our sales manager was determined to get an etcher operating manual from one of our major competitors. He came up with an elaborate plan, including false name badges, company fronts, and agents, which he would take to the competitor’s booth and pose as customers. However, on the first day, when we went to our booth to prepare for the day, my fellow process engineer, Joe, was sitting with his feet on the table reading one of that competitor’s etcher operating manuals.

“Where did you get that?” our sales manager asked.
 “From their booth.”
“How?”
“One of their field service guys gave it to me.”
“Why would he just give you one of their etcher manuals?” 

“Because I gave him one of ours,” Joe replied.

Several minutes of pandemonium ensued, but no harm was done, except perhaps to our sales manager’s blood pressure. Joe knew that no company would put anything classified in a customer operating manual or bring one to a trade show. It was fun, though, for us technical types to watch our sales guys have hissy fits for several minutes.

I considered sharing the story of the time I got kicked out of Disneyland—an event I’ve quietly been proud of ever since—but I’m running out of space, so it will have to wait. 

Enjoy the show.

This column originally appeared in the February 2025 issue of PCB007 Magazine.