Issue link: https://iconnect007.uberflip.com/i/929192
JANUARY 2018 I DESIGN007 MAGAZINE 79 headphones, Google Home, and lots of other useful and high-tech prizes. When attendees reg- ister they'll be given a little passport card which will have the exhibitor sponsor's booth number and name on it. They have to go to those specific booths throughout the show to get stickers from them; on Thursday, they must drop off the card at the IPC booth, where we'll announce the win - ners that afternoon. Goldman: That's something new that should be fun. Balonek: Especially with the younger audience that we're trying to attract to APEX EPXO. Of course, they come for the education, but there should be a fun aspect of it too. They've asked for more networking opportunities and just fun things to do on the show floor. Shaughnessy: People like it when they can get a beer together at the show. Balonek: Exactly. Our keynote speaker this year is Jared Cohen, the founder of Google Ideas and now he's with Jigsaw, the Alphabet arm. We're excited to bring him to the show, and he's equally excited to speak to this audience. I think his quote was, "Wow. This is perfect for me," when the invitation came across his desk. Goldman: A nice technical audience. Balonek: Yeah, and that's the one thing with the keynote speakers that we do try to recruit for this event—they love speaking to this audi - ence because they can speak at the same level as them. For lack of a better term, they don't have to "dumb it down" for us. We get it. Mr, Cohen will present, "Game Changers: Technology and the Next Big Disruptions." Shaughnessy: Yeah, it was great having Mayim Bialik last year. She was great discussing engi- neers versus scientists. That was funny. Balonek: It was interesting the questions they were asking her. I always find that fascinating to see what kind of questions there are. I think my absolute favorite keynote speaker, though, was William Shatner. Shaughnessy: Hard to beat that. Balonek: I'm still trying. Goldman: You've had some pretty good ones. Balonek: Thank you. It's a hard industry to tap into. It's a very niche industry, so it's a long pro- cess of trying to figure out who would be the best fit. So, if you have any ideas, I'm always open to them. Shaughnessy: I think it's good how you rotate. Instead of having all futurists or something, you kind of rotate and you even had a super famous guy like Shatner, but then the next year was Michio Kaku. Balonek: That's an important thing when plan- ning an event. You've got to keep it fresh every year so people keep coming back. One new initiative that we are doing this year is a STEM program for high school students, and that will take place on Thursday. We invited two high schools from Southern California that are involved in STEM programs. There's been a lot of talk in this industry about how to attract the younger employees for the indus- try. It's great to recruit at the college level, but IPC APEX EXPO 2018 PRE-SHOW SPECIAL COVERAGE