Issue link: https://iconnect007.uberflip.com/i/474043
64 The PCB Magazine • March 2015 2015 iPC aPeX eXPo show review show reView IPC APEX EXPO 2015: Allow for Serendipity by kelly Dack I-COnnECT007 GuEST EDITOr "If plan A doesn't work, stay cool! The alphabet has twenty-five more letters…" —Claire Cook, best-selling author and reinvention expert Andy Down! At the start of the IPC APEX EXPO, my trade show coverage mentor and Managing Editor of The PCB Design Magazine and the PCBDesign007 newsletter, Andy Shaughnessy, was horribly under the weather and I was really concerned that he would not make it to the show from his home across the country in Georgia. But while he arrived eager to begin reporting and interviews, he was able to cover only a few events before being quarantined by his I-Connect007 team out of fear of being the first media organization to accidently record a lung being coughed up on-cam during an interview. Now, while Andy looked and sounded really sick, I don't think he was at all contagious. I spent a good deal of time before the show with him strategizing for some interviews and I even dined with him at a local sushi joint. And even as I write this, days later, I still feel great. Disclaimer: I do tend to spend a lot of time with Andy at the shows so I've built up plenty of immunity points. Andy asked if I'd submit my show perspective since his was shrouded in a haze of cough remedies. (I hope you are better my friend!) Designer Forum Once again, I was glad to have the opportunity to attend the Monday Designer's Forum event. This year's list of speakers included Carl Schattke, a PCB design engineer from Tesla Motors, who spoke on the subject of design for success. PCB library expert Tom Hausherr, president of PCB Libraries Inc. discussed the IPC-7531C land pattern standard and generated quite a bit of audience engagement by presenting some new ideas for PCB component identification and marking. IPC Master Trainer Rainer Taube, from Taube Electronic GmgH and FED Germany, spoke on component mounting issues and offered some recommendations in context of IPC-7070, for which he serves as committee co-chair. Now, my usual plans for attending any designer event are clear: hear what industry icon Rick Hartley has to say. Rick speaks out of love and experience for every topic he chooses to discuss. At previous Designer Forum events I've heard him give kudos, and I've heard him be blunt. I've watched him yell at the top of his lungs while pounding on the lectern to make a point, and I've heard him explain the need to invest in yourself to an audience so mesmerized you could hear a pin drop. So I could only imagine that his talk this year on "success through control of cost and quality" would bring the house down. But as serendipity would