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SMT007-Dec2018

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DECEMBER 2018 I SMT007 MAGAZINE 65 we would not be able to have huge hospital- ity suites. Hickman: Right, I think we discussed doing away with them altogether. In the end, we said we wanted to put limits on them. Obviously, you can't control them, but one thing we reached an agreement upon among the members was that we would greatly reduce the size of the hospitality suites, which was more in line with the show. We wanted an event to show off our wares to key customers at a reasonable cost because they were getting really out of hand at that point if you remember. Feinberg: I do remember. Hickman: It was unbelievable. Feinberg: Believe me, I remember. I think that there was one show—one of the last ones before this—where we figured that the cost of the hospitality suites was approaching $500 a minute. That was crazy. Hickman: It was crazy. Feinberg: Absolutely. So, that's how we started the EXPO. The first one was in Boston. Hickman: Right, but there was another part that we wanted to do at the same time. We felt that we could have more in-depth technical semi- nars. We wanted to expand the technical side of it in line with the trade show. The NEPCON show was becoming a mishmash of a whole bunch of different stuff. We wanted to be able to take more control of the technical seminar side along with the IPC of course. Each one of the companies said that they would want to participate and bring more people to the tech- nical side of it. Feinberg: Yes, because NEPCON was basically just a trade show and a huge party. Hickman: Exactly. Feinberg: No one thought that IPC could be successful, but here we are 20+ years later, and NEPCON is still a big show in other parts of the world. However, we basically drove them out of the U.S. Hickman: Didn't NEPCON start increasing the price per square foot, too? Feinberg: That's what kicked it off. They kept raising the cost per square foot, made the loca- tion choices into an auction, and took away the carpeting in the aisles unless we were will- ing to pay more for them. Hickman: The key element there for our success was the fact that although we may have been competitors in the industry, we reached a mutual understanding on how to do it effec- tively without helping or hurting anybody. It was really a combination. Feinberg: Definitely. Hickman: It was a great combination. I know the suppliers added a lot of impressive features back in those days. Feinberg: Do you recall us having to go the IPC board and recommend this? Hickman: Yes, I wasn't there, but you were. Feinberg: I was there. The board was inter- ested, but some said, "We're not a trade show company. We are a standards group and shouldn't be doing this. Why would we do it?" I remember talking with them and saying we think that we can bring in a couple hundred thousand dollars a year to help IPC. That immediately changed their mind. Hickman: It worked out because we were very successful. I think that most of the companies followed the guidelines. Remember there were a few that did not and we had a little talk with them?

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