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| Mike Judd, European Editor at Large, Circuitnet
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Last week’s National Electronics Week, located at Earls Court 2 in London, was well supported by suppliers and trade associations. This was a nice venue, there was a good feel to the show and the layout was excellent. The central meeting hub worked well.
The pre-show concern was centered on whether visitors would travel to the capital for this three day event. With Nepcon in Birmingham, more central in the country, being cancelled, I was interested to see how NEW would fare as a ‘new’ format and location.
The promise of a packed program by the organizers was achieved with an impressive array of exhibits, working production lines and a raft of seminars. With almost 200 booths and over 300 named exhibitors, some with their distributors, most of the leading equipment and material suppliers were present.
Two fully functioning production lines showcased advanced lead-free production and test technology with a range of assembly, soldering and test equipment from leading equipment suppliers that included amongst others: DEK, Mydata, Europlacer, Vitronics Soltec, Speedline, Panasonic, Seho, PDR, also materials from Balver Zinn, Multicore and Kester.
Lars Wallin, European IPC Representative, coordinated this part of the show and the accompanying seminars.
On the show floor were a series of other seminars hosted by: Advanced Rework Technology (ART), The UK Electronics Alliance (UKEA) and the Electronics Knowledge Transfer Network (EKTN).
IPC also hosted a program of seminars with renowned presenters that included Ning-Cheng Lee and Werner Engelmaier.
It was certainly a smart move to invite UKEA and EKTN to the show, both as exhibitors and organizing seminars, as it widened the scope for potential attendees.
Other Associations present were The Component Obsolescence Group (COG), IET, AFDEC, Cambridge Wireless and SMART Group.
Now to the crunch! Most of those visitors who made the effort to get to the show were almost certainly serious - the organizer's post show message being quality not quantity.
Sadly however, the turnout of visitors was disappointing. Many of the seminars were poorly attended, and although EKTN managed to get over 100 to some of theirs, others were decidedly empty. Some visitors commented that the production line was poorly signed and explained.
So it’s very courageous that the organizers have already announced show dates next year for 7th – 9th April 2009, again at Earls Court 2, with a concentration on ‘future technologies’. It’s good to see that their marketing strategy for next year will focus on what it takes to encourage the industry to attend trade shows. Certainly more visitors through the door would be appreciated.
Good Luck to Claire, Rob and all the NEW team.
Mike Judd
PS I think this was a rare show in the UK where seminars and working line did not have a Bob Willis participation. Bob we missed you…….!
