From the Floor at PCB West 2022

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“You can cut all the flowers, but you cannot keep spring from coming.” – Pablo Neruda

It may be early October—the cusp of “Indian Summer” in the western United States—but I was reminded of this quote as I spent the day at this year’s PCB West Conference in San Jose on Wednesday, Oct. 5.

The 30-year-old show has a purpose to train designers, engineers, fabricators and even assemblers on making printed circuit boards. It includes a four-day technical conference and a one-day exhibition. While Tuesday was a day full of panel discussions, Wednesday offered a variety of presentations, ranging from topics on printed electronics to the "mystery" of bypass capacitors.

Though the organizers of PCB West had soldiered through in delivering a conference every year during the pandemic, the virtual and hybrid models just did not quite meet the requirements for a technical conference. To be fair, the limitations weren’t PCB West’s fault; the shortcomings came from the show’s virtual environments, not the host.  All the more encouraging, then, that the 2022 edition of PCB West was back in bloom.

I arrived in time for the Wednesday exhibition. It was immediately obvious that attendance this year was up significantly from recent years. One show regular said it reminded them of the attendance at PCB West 10 years ago. It was evident that the energy of the attendees was high. Mike Creeden, PCEA membership director, said, “It's nice to be back. This event is running like it should. This dynamic, there is a vibration and an energy here.”

No matter how much stress and difficulty we face, we come bouncing back.

Here are just some of the scenes from Wednesday at PCB West: