Issue link: https://iconnect007.uberflip.com/i/1295812
OCTOBER 2020 I DESIGN007 MAGAZINE 83 Holden: One company in Michigan makes vitamins and nutrients, as well as cosmetics. A research area is in electrophoretic flexible masks to remove wrinkles; it's just a printed battery in a circuit. Their chemicals are electro- phoretically driven into the skin, and once it's depleted, you can throw the whole thing away. Finstad: We serve that market, too. There are a couple of products designed to create "micro-injuries" below the skin surface. This creates scar tissue, and it tightens everything; it's almost like a facelift without having any cutting done. You go in for these treatments, and a month later, you look 10 years younger. In some of these applications, the flex circuit is visible to the patient, so they want it to be visually appealing. Shaughnessy: Mark, you and Nick Koop from TTM presented your flex class at the virtual PCB West. Tell us about that. Finstad: It was good. We like doing livestreams. I've watched a few of them where I've just had to listen to a voice and look at the slides go through, and I lose interest pretty quickly. We wanted to do something that was livestreamed to bolster what we normally do because Nick and I both like interaction with the class. There's going to be a learning curve in work- ing with these virtual things, but overall, it went really well. We had good interaction. In the three hours we talked, we addressed 30–40 questions and had another 15–20 comments. Burkett: We probably had 65–75 attendees. Finstad: It was good. We started with total attendees in the upper 60s, and we retained them through the whole class. We never dropped under 60 for the entire three hours. Shaughnessy: Do you think the virtual format is here to stay? It's not the same as a live event, but lots of people like it because they can watch while they're at work and they don't have to fly halfway across the country. Burkett: We are doing a lot more events like that, and we're learning as we go. As you mentioned earlier, some of our attendees are being forced into flex. We put on a webinar on this topic, and we usually get really good attendance. The interaction is a bit differ- ent when compared to being on-site and in a classroom. That stated, our attendees have responded with very positive comments related to the training that we provide. Shaughnessy: I appreciate both of you taking the time to do this. Burkett: I enjoyed hearing some of your back- ground and stories, Happy. Holden: Thank you. Like you, I've been in this industry for a long time. We have a lot of sto- ries to tell. FLEX007