Issue link: https://iconnect007.uberflip.com/i/1515990
12 PCB007 MAGAZINE I FEBRUARY 2024 from their powerful, international professional networks. Last year, about 90% of the confer- ence papers were due to direct outreach from a committee member to a colleague. e ECWC16 conference will feature tech- nical presentations from companies spanning the global supply chain. e committee acts as peer reviewers for the abstracts and the papers. ey are always looking for new infor- mation, technical innovation, and data. Com- mittee members attend conferences world- wide, sit on standards development commit- tees, and are generally very active in the indus- try. ey know whether something is new, the premise is false, or the data doesn't make sense. ey have high standards for technology, that it must be innovative, make sense, and be rele- vant and useful in the industry. Matt Kelly: My number one goal is to drive the quality level of our technical content. is show has been a great opportunity for that. e Technical Program Committee is not afraid to turn authors away if their papers do not feature new and innovative work. We focus on new topics and challenges, discoveries in materi- als and processes, and information that could transform our industry. Our team, namely Stan, Udo, and Julia, have done an amazing job modernizing the conference planning pro- cesses over the past three years. e printed circuit board tracks have traditionally been a strong focus at the show, but we are even stron- ger now with the breadth and depth of topics covered this year thanks to the global WECC member contributions. Stanton Rak: I've been involved with the Tech- nical Program Committee for over 10 years, and because of ECWC this year, we will have the greatest number of PCB-related sub- missions in the recent history of the confer- ence. We expanded our committee by joining forces with several PCB associations in Asia and Europe; we nearly doubled in size for this event. We are integrating the contributions from both organizations—ECWC16 and IPC APEX EXPO 2024—and combining our tech- nical conferences into one program. at was a big step for the Technical Program Commit- tee. Kelly: e printed circuit board industry in the United States deteriorated heavily over the last 20 years. Because of that, there is not as much printed circuit board technology leadership in this country as in some other global areas, certainly in areas like advanced packaging and EV. is leadership team and the technol- ogy committee spent a tremendous amount of time focused on the technology elements driv- ing our industry, regardless of where the infor- mation is coming from, to bring the very best information to everyone attending the show. By bringing in global speakers on important topics that push our manufacturing limits, we can get that leading edge. is is driving the quality of our technology content higher. Matties: This seems to be a shift from past years when you simply asked for technical papers. Julia Gumminger