IPC President John Mitchell on the Past, Present, and Future, Pt. 2

Estimated reading time: 7 minutes

Matties: Is that a formal service or is this more casual?

Mitchell: We're here to meet the needs of our members and Brian’s willing to spend the time. It’s not a formal service at all. It's just like, “You have a need for that? I've got a pretty smart guy on my staff so let's have him talk to you.” We do that all the time, and when we have a consistent need, then we’ll form a program around it.

Matties: One of the things that I see here in the industry, in America in particular, is it's very tough to get great sales and great marketing people.

Mitchell: It is, because you have to differentiate. Nobody wants to feel like they're being sold to and yet we're all in the business of sales, every last person is. You're selling that I'm good enough to work for you.

Matties: That's right.

Mitchell: It's all about how you package it. I'm pretty excited about what Brian and his team have done.

Matties: So just final thoughts, we're here at APEX on the second day. What do you think?

Mitchell: Things have been amazing. When I have down time, we've been walking the floor here. I'm stopping at the booths and I'm hearing amazing results. I won't give specific sales figures, but some of them are giving them to me and some of them sold more than what they were expecting to for the entire show in the first hour. That’s incredible!

I sit there and think, there's some value for you. I actually feel sorry for the people that chose not to come to Vegas, because a few people did. They said it feels like a boondoggle. Some people don’t get it approved, and what have you. When we did the opening ceremony, you were there, you saw that. I had to get out of the way. It was like a stampede coming into the place. It was crazy.

I was like ‘holy smokes.’ It has been really great. Then with the Dean Kamen’s opening keynote, what a great way to kick things off, he got an impromptu standing ovation. I've got to tell you, we're a group of stodgy engineers here, myself included. I don’t like to stand up. He got a standing ovation. You can count on your hand the amount of times that's happened in, from my understanding, the last 16 years. It just does not happen.

We’ve been having some good standards meetings. I’ve had some of our certification centers come up and say, “We're having some challenges, but I met with your team and they took care of me.” I really appreciate that. I didn’t have to get involved because I've got good people.

Matties: We're here in Vegas this year and then it is back to San Diego

Mitchell: San Diego for the next six years.

Matties: Fantastic. This has been a workable venue. I know there was some concern about it being here again, but looks like the attendance is good.

Mitchell: The tech people are here and they're learning. The engineers are here and they're working on the standards. They're making progress which is great. I had the same fears as a lot of people did about Vegas and how it would be. It's always an iffy thing. I've got to tell you I'm grinning ear to ear. People really seem to be having a great show. My sense is that, from big to small, people are doing business, which is great.

Matties: Literally, just grinning ear to ear. John, thank you so much. It’s always good to see you.

Mitchell: Thank you both, I appreciate it.

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