Issue link: https://iconnect007.uberflip.com/i/1437606
8 PCB007 MAGAZINE I DECEMBER 2021 Time For a Stroll Robert Plant could have been talking about trade shows when he sang, "It's been a long time since I did the stroll." When was the last time you did the stroll down the aisles of a trade show? IPC APEX EXPO 2020 was probably your last trade show. So, we're all excited about the upcoming IPC APEX EXPO 2022 in San Diego. e show is less than six weeks away, and I'm looking forward to joining you in celebrating the return of trade shows to our industry. It feels like the last IPC APEX EXPO was 10 years ago, not two. at was a solid show. I went sailing around the bay with editors Kelly Dack and Pete Starkey, and those were good times. en all hell broke loose in the form of COVID-19. is was unlike anything the indus- try had ever experienced. Even in the days aer 9/11, there was a feeling of unity and rebuild- ing, and we knew that the worst was over. But with COVID, there was no end in sight—there still isn't, really. Over the past few years, some of us con- tracted COVID. Pete Starkey and I both had COVID, but we came out of it no worse for the wear. I've spoken with some of you who had mild cases and lost a few days of work, while others were in and out of the hospital for months. A few of my friends and relatives caught COVID and almost overnight they were gone. COVID is so random and cha- otic—it's a tornado that destroys every third house in the subdivi- sion, leaving survivors to won- der why they were spared. But even in the face of a global shutdown that killed of thou- sands of businesses, our indus- try did what had to be done. Fabricators re-routed their shop floors so that employ- ees wouldn't have to work so close together, and they spent untold amounts of time and resources sanitizing worksta- tions. Many fabricators in the The Shaughnessy Report by Andy Shaughnessy, I-CONNECT007