The Digital Route - May 2019

Published: 28 May 2019
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Stephen ChavezThe latest reports from the local chapters.

This month’s column highlights the Orange County Chapter, the largest IPC Designers Council (DC) chapter and one of the most active and thriving. Scott McCurdy, Orange County Chapter president, describes the successful format the chapter follows to reach local designers and PCB professionals. There is also an update from the IPC DC Executive Board as its collaboration with the new IPC Education Foundation continues.

Orange County Chapter

By Scott McCurdy

The IPC Designers Council is alive and well in Southern California. The Orange County Chapter was active long before I took over as president in 2003. We are proudly the largest active chapter in existence based on attendance at our quarterly meetings. We average 50 to 65 attendees at our meetings, and occasionally have 80+ in attendance.

What’s so special about the Orange County Chapter? For starters, we’re fortunate a large number of electronics companies are located in Southern California, so there are many PCB designers in our area thirsty for knowledge. We are also lucky to have many local PCB fabricators and assemblers from which we draw attendees and speakers. All the major CAE vendors have offices and technical field personnel here and have been very supportive of our chapter in hosting lunches to help keep costs down.

Another factor in our success is our timing. We hold “lunch ‘n learn” events (FIGURE 1). It’s much easier to draw a crowd for a long educational lunch when traffic is lighter, rather than holding meetings after working hours when rush hour is a nightmare. It can also be easier to tell your boss you’re taking a long lunch to attend an educational event than to tell your family you won’t be home for dinner.

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Figure 1. Orange County Chapter “lunch ‘n learn” event.

But the key reason our chapter thrives is we cover interesting topics with engaging speakers who share their knowledge and consistently delight our audience. Some of our biggest crowds were a result of the following topics:

Our meeting agenda has other elements too. I usually speak for about 10 minutes about upcoming PCB-related events, such as trade shows and conferences, as well as upcoming IPC Designer Certification workshops (FIGURE 2). I also let members know about the various publications, newsletters and podcasts geared to the PCB design professional. And I always ask the audience if anyone is looking for a new job or if anyone’s company is looking for designers. You can’t beat the networking that is a byproduct of bringing together a room full of designers. Then I introduce our featured speaker(s), and the learning begins. And to make things fun, we always have a raffle drawing at the end of a meeting with a couple hundred dollars in prizes graciously donated by our speakers, sponsors and others.
I won’t say it’s easy to put these events together, but since I’ve been president we’ve done 64 events. It’s not all me. Our other officers, including Terri Kleekamp of Mentor and Kathy Palumbo of Production Analysis and Learning Services, have been active in our chapter longer than I. We’re also blessed with other faithful volunteers, such as Judy Warner of Altium, Marty Grasso of Advanced Circuits, and a few others who show up early and lend a hand setting up the room, greeting attendees, passing out name badges, hooking up computers and speakers to the projector, setting up the P/A system, etc.

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Figure 2. Scott McCurdy speaking at an Orange County Chapter event.

Lately, we’ve been putting my iPhone on a tripod to record the presentations. We always send out an email a few days after each event to provide links to download slideshow presentations from the speakers and watch the presentations. Further, we print a “cheat sheet” with all the URLs so attendees don’t have to take notes. We have a “bingo card” to capture contact information to keep our database current and get audience suggestions for topics they’d like to hear about in the future.

In summary, we have a great bunch of designers and PCB professionals who come to our meetings. And I believe this format for learning more about the PCB interconnect industry from design through manufacturing is helping designers by igniting their passion for learning and expanding their knowledge and skills to keep current in this challenging, everchanging profession.

IPC DC Executive Board

The IPC DC Executive Board and the IPC Education Foundation met Mar. 28 to continue to integrate and work toward common goals. Several topics were discussed, including:

Stay tuned for more updates as we continue to collaborate for the betterment of our industry.

2019 Training and Certification Schedule

IPC Certified Interconnect Designer (CID)

IPC Advanced Certified Interconnect Designer CID+

Note: Dates and locations are subject to change. Contact EPTAC Corp. to check current dates and availability. A minimum enrollment of seven students is required for a class to be held.

PCB Design Events
Realize LIVE

PCB2Day

IPC SummerCom

PCB West 2019

AltiumLive 2019

Stephen (Steph) Chavez is a member of the IPC Designers Council Executive Board and chairman of the communications subcommittee; This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

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