Printed Circuit Design & Fab Online Magazine - Current Issue

Current Issue

Mike Buetow It’s not often you get the chance to talk shop with Hayao Nakahara, Gene Weiner, Tom Kastner and David Schild. When you do, you’re best off sitting back and listening.

That was the order of the day during the PCB East conference last month. Under the auspices of another media group, I was asked to moderate a panel on the future of PCB manufacturing in North America. And while journalists are often thought of as the seers of the industry, we are, in fact, more purveyors of others’ insights, versus prognosticators in our own right.

Read more: Talking (Board) Shop with the Seers

Mike Buetow

Since our founding, PCEA has sought to collaborate with other associations wherever we could.

We quickly formed alliances with peers in Australia, Germany, India, Malaysia, Taiwan, Thailand and more. And our founders and leaders sit atop key technical committees in other organizations, such as IPC.

PCEA is the leading printed circuit design organization in the world, and in many instances these ties are intended to fill key technical gaps. We also see a mutual need to ensure our members have access to a wide range of manufacturing experts in every geography.

Read more: EIPC-PCEA Road Show Brings Experts to You

It was in 1997 when I visited Ireland for the first time. I was 30 years old then, and had lived in metropolitan cities (Chicago, Providence) for most of my adult life.

Even then, I was fairly well traveled for my age: three continents, 40+ states. And, like many 30-year-olds, I was well acquainted with local nightlife, its various charms and debaucheries, and especially, its demographics.

Through years of travel for business or pleasure, I had come to the realization that most bars (or pubs or haunts or dives or whatever colloquialism you prefer) aimed at a certain clientele. That customer base varied by the place, but in general, there were the bars and clubs for the younger crowd, the pubs for the middle aged, and the lounges for the older set.

Every so often, of course, we “young ones” might venture into the territory of our elders, be it out of curiosity or convenience. Likewise, the “parents” might wander into the joints that were typically the provenance of the college crowd – on football game days or alumni weekends, for instance. But for the most part, each generation generally stuck to its own designated spots.