Issue link: https://iconnect007.uberflip.com/i/1493016
170 I-CONNECT007 I REAL TIME WITH... IPC APEX EXPO 2023 SHOW & TELL MAGAZINE IPC APEX EXPO 2023 is now history, and, in my opinion, it has come a very long way since its inception. To appreciate that state- ment, we must go back to the first IPC event I attended, which was an annual meeting in Washington, D.C., in the 1960s. At the time, I was a process engineering manager for Trans/Circuits, a large PCB fabricator. I soon became an IPC member until a few years later when I went into sales representing Dynachem, a photoresist and electroless copper supplier. Because suppliers could not become full IPC members at that time, my involvement waned until enough suppli- ers became involved with IPC that it became apparent they should be allowed to have full membership. A few years later, as an execu- tive at Thiokol/Dynachem, I was asked to form and lead a sup- plier's council for IPC. The coun- cil included companies such as Dupont, Shipley, MacDermid, Excellon, Chemcut, and several others. As suppliers, we showed our products at a growing num- ber of trade shows; as the indus- try grew, the cost to exhibit and entertain customers a few times a year at these events grew expo- nentially. Our council then considered ways to work together to assist the industry and support IPC. I endorsed the idea of starting a trade show of our own. Some of the members of the IPC Board of Directors were against the idea, but after a series of meetings, where we showed them how the expenditures by industry suppliers would help IPC, they decided to try it. We kicked off the first show in Boston in 1994. Our first few shows were focused on PCB fab, but as the years went on and the show grew, that PCB-focused show was combined with a similar event for assemblers, as well as the annual IPC meetings and activities. Thus, the modern IPC APEX EXPO was born. A Long History of Innovation by Dan Feinberg • I-CONNECT007 show review