56 DESIGN007 MAGAZINE I APRIL 2020
2020 EIPC Winter Conference, Day 1 E
Pete Starkey recaps how the 2020 EIPC Win-
ter Conference, held in mid-February, attracted
around 90 delegates from a dozen European
countries—as well as a few from North Amer-
ica—to an outstanding learning and network-
ing experience for members of the PCB com-
munity. The theme of this year's event was:
"The Needs for Next-Generation Electronic De-
vices and Changes in Fabrication Solutions for
PCBs, PCBAs, Materials, and Technologies."
IPC Chief Economist Dr. Shawn DuBravac
Shares Industry's Financial Outlook E
On March 23, IPC Chief Economist Shawn Du-
Bravac, Ph.D., CFA, spoke with I-Connect007
publisher Barry Matties in an exclusive phone
interview immediately following DuBravac's
online briefing to IPC member attendees.
Institute of Circuit Technology Spring
Seminar 2020 E
Back to Meriden, the nominal centre of Eng-
land where the daffodils were blooming. A
good crowd made it to the spring seminar that
followed the Annual General Meeting of the
Institute of Circuit Technology (ICT), with
five specialist presentations and excellent op-
portunities to network with their peers in the
industry. Pete Starkey shares his overview of
the event.
I-Connect007 Researchers Survey Industry
on COVID-19 Outbreak Effect E
I-Connect007 surveyed our readers regarding
the coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak and its
effect on our industry. After reviewing the first
100 survey responses primarily from North
America and Europe, one-third of the respon-
dents reported that the outbreak was having at
least a small effect on their orders. Two-thirds
of our readers have yet to see any effect on
their orders.
Audio Interview With IPC President and
CEO Dr. John Mitchell: COVID-19 Global
Industry Update E
On March 20, Dr. John Mitchell, IPC president
and CEO, spoke with I-Connect007 publish-
er Barry Matties in an exclusive phone inter-
view with updates on COVID-19-related cur-
rent events in the manufacturing industry. In
this information-packed 14-minute audio inter-
view, Dr. Mitchell shared key takeaways from
Friday's IPC Executive Forum conference call.
NCAB: A 'Hub' That Works With Designers
From Start to Finish E
In this video interview from the show, Kelly
Dack meets with Ruben Contreras, field appli-
cations engineer at NCAB Group, and Shaun
Salas, key account manager. They discuss a va-
riety of ways to overcome challenges with tar-
iffs and broker relationships, as well as empha-
sizing upstream expertise and how the com-
pany operates as a "hub." Part of NCAB's ob-
jective is to work with designers and design
engineers to make the board more manufac-
turable.
Standard of Excellence: Successful R&D
With Your PCB Partner E
Now, more than ever, we have to rely on our
PCB partners to help us with new product de-
velopment. A great deal of trust and confi-
dence in our PCB vendors is required to cre-
ate and fulfill this type of partnership fruitfully.
Anaya Vardya shares eight things that must be
in place to have a successful R&D relationship
with your PCB partner.
