By John Mitchell, IPC president and CEO

As our industry continues to undergo difficult challenges, IPC is committed to helping our members address the issues most critical to their success. With research, industry intelligence, a new approach to training and education, and an ongoing conversation with our global audience, we are making strides to turn disruption into opportunity for our members. Happily, we’ve been able to see more of our members in person this year, reminding us of how much we’ve missed face-to-face communication.

We were thrilled to participate in the annual EMS-Tag, held in Würzburg, Germany, where we were enlightened by keynote speaker Dieter Weiss, in4ma, who shared statistics on the European EMS industry and recovery. Sanjay Huprikar, president, Europe and South Asia operations, gives a report on the industry intelligence provided in Weiss’ speech.

When it comes to addressing workforce challenges, we work closely with our membership and the industry to attract new talent through educational opportunities and career pathways. David Hernandez, VP, education, provides a current update in this article.

IPC Design brings printed board design professionals together through professional networking, ongoing technical education, and a chance to participate in an exciting new design competition, which I explain in this article.

The field of electronics is vast, varied, and global, resulting in opinions and information from many sources. To track the pulse of the EMS industry internationally, IPC launched the IPC Sentiment Survey to determine the concerns of EMS companies and how we can help to institute change from an association perspective. A recent press release provides an explanation here (link). https://www.ipc.org/news-release/component-shortages-are-driving-production-delays-and-higher-costs-manufacturers. Just last week, IPC issued the October report. View report here.

We are currently gearing up for our signature event, IPC APEX EXPO, to be held January 22-27 at the San Diego Convention Center in San Diego, California. We look forward to an in-person event that brings together the most exciting news in electronics, along with the renewal of friendships and collaboration among peers. I hope to see you there.  www.ipcapexexpo.org