Issue link: https://iconnect007.uberflip.com/i/1355791
100 I-CONNECT007 I REAL TIME WITH... IPC APEX EXPO 2021 SHOW & TELL MAGAZINE her paper, "Addressing the Landscape of Automotive Electronics Design: Improving the Performance and Robustness rough Proper Material Choice." I think one of my favorite things about attending this confer- ence virtually was the ease of moving between conference tracks. As Lenora finished her presentation, I was able to quickly hop over to the Microvia 1 Reliability track to lis- ten to both Gerry Partida of Summit Inter- connect and Jerry Magera with Motorola Solutions as they gave us an update on their tireless work on microvia reliability. Other technical sessions I attended include the Microvia 2 Reliability track, the PCB Reli- ability track, PCB Design: HDI and Signal Integr ity Considerations, PCB Advance- ments, and the Defense Industrial Base Tech- nology Roadmap. While I have attended sev- eral during the live portion of the IPC APEX 2021 conference, there are still several that I intend to go back and listen to. A couple things stand out to me about this year's conference. First, whether live orvirtual, IPC APEX EXPO provides stellar technical content and for many reasons, the virtual conference allowed me to attend a greater number of sessions than I would have been able to attend if the event were live and in-person. IPC APEX EXPO is typically one of the busiest and most fun weeks of the year, with breakfast meetings, lunch meetings, din- ner meetings, networking events, the tech- nical conference, and the vast exhibit hall. While I did have a chat or two while online in the technical conference, I greatly missed the camaraderie and energy that comes from the live event and I am already looking for- ward to attending live and in-person as soon as we are able! S&T Tara Dunn is the vice president of marketing and business development for Averatek.