Issue link: https://iconnect007.uberflip.com/i/679419
8 The PCB Design Magazine • May 2016 Every year, I attend SMTA Atlanta, just across town. You have to love a local trade show! No airlines, no jet lag, and no hotels. It's a small show; it would fit in a school gymnasium. Regional tabletop shows like this may be the next big thing. Fees for exhibiting are so low that it's hard to justify not exhibiting. Some compa- nies had their local reps manning the booths, but I talked to exhibitors who flew in from all over the East Coast, including one technologist from Canada. If you can tie in a few customer visits, the trip can pay for itself. But for me, the highpoint of SMTA Atlanta is the Designers Roundtable. This informal gath- ering usually draws about a dozen PCB design- ers, some of them ex-Scientific Atlanta veterans. It's moderated by UPMG's Pete Waddell, and we bounce questions off the designers for an hour or so. It's very informal, and it draws many of the PCB designers in metro Atlanta. This year the roundtable had 15 attendees, up from 12 last year. Two of the new attendees were under 35, which surprised all of us. They design medical boards, which isn't such a sur- prise; that's one segment that keeps on grow- ing. Most of the designers attending work for Cisco, Siemens, Sienna, NCR, and a few other smaller firms. by Andy Shaughnessy I-CONNECT007 The Designer Roundtable Roundup THE SHAUGHNESSY REPORT 8 The PCB Design Magazine • May 2016