Issue link: https://iconnect007.uberflip.com/i/1437606
88 PCB007 MAGAZINE I DECEMBER 2021 your business or that you can help.is is when you can leverage the virtual connections more easily. I hope people have that as one of their pri- orities, to meet different people. Of course, we want to say hello to all our old friends, but there's going to be a lot of new people there, too. ose connections can be super impor- tant because people have gotten very comfort- able, as you said, with the virtual way of doing things. Now if they've made a new acquain- tance, they can maintain that very easily once they leave APEX EXPO. Matties: What messaging are you providing for those who are not attending APEX EXPO but still want to be able to participate? Mitchell: IPC APEX EXPO is really three events combined in one. You have your exhi- bition show floor, something that really needs to be experienced in person. Non-attendees could certainly find out who exhibited and how to contact them, but they could do that anyway, right? en we have professional development, giving attendees a chance to take a deep dive into a particular subject, and a robust techni- cal education program that offers more than 100 papers in four strong educational tracks. In addition, we will have committee meetings going on essentially all the time. e standards development committee meetings will be live, but people who aren't there will have the opportunity aer the fact to raise comments, concerns and/or points, and share data aer the fact, so if they can't make it, they can still impact the standards. On the professional development side, a few presentations' recordings, I believe, will be shared for those who aren't there. But as you said, you were able to peruse the entire agenda for it right now. And if there's interest in those, a specific speaker, there's always the opportunity to reach out. But mostly, we're trying to keep it pretty much a live event. Matties: Good move, I think. Can you give us a preview of your keynote, the theme, what people can expect, and the takeaways? Mitchell: Sure. We're working on it every day, and it will continue to evolve up to the last minute because we want it to be timely and relevant as things can change and shi. But, in general, I will be discussing some of the basic trends—economic, supply chain, or tech- nological—as an opening salvo to setting the landscape for a discussion on how we navi- gate these choppy waters. How do we chart a path through these treacherous terrains and leverage them toward both immediate success and long-term success? We'll be taking some of these items that we've talked about—supply chain, labor, trans- portation costs, parts being unavailable, and part shortages (which I look at as slightly different)—and discuss what organizations should be doing, best practices, etc. I hope those in attendance will be listening to under- stand: What are the little nuggets that we can take away to help soen the challenges we're facing today? It's an interesting time we're liv- ing in. Most companies that I'm talking to are producing more than they have ever pro- duced in their lives, and they still have back orders. Yes, there's a shortage, but at the same time, around 80% of the companies I'm talk- ing to are having their best years ever. Matties: We hear the same thing. Mitchell: Despite that, there's more demand. I will be talking about how much of that is sustainable in the long term. Are we actually changing? Do we just need to produce more forever, or is this just a two- or three-year bump for certain things? Will the needs change? It's a tough situation to navigate. Matties: ere's an ebb and flow to every- thing.