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EDITORIAL INSIGHT
Brown - This Season’s Beige
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News in the UK has recently been full of the antics of our less than charismatic Prime Minister, and his somewhat cack-handed attempts to embrace new technology as he tries to appeal to his rapidly diminishing audience of potential voters. No one could accuse Gordon Brown of being interesting, and his somewhat sullen and brooding demeanour doesn’t make him the most attractive media personality. In fact, I am increasingly embarrassed on my frequent trips to the United States by how few people even know who he is. Recently, Brown used YouTube as his medium of choice to converse with the masses.
All he managed to do was reinforce what even his most fervent of supporters already knew, he is awkward and lumpen in his delivery, and even if he was talking sense, the viewing public would have long since put their foot through the screen before they grasped any of his points.
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My travels since the last issue have taken me to Minneapolis, MN, USA and Hannover in Germany, for the SME Micro Manufacturing conference and the Micro Technology Exhibition and Conference held in the world’s largest exhibition, the Hannover show. More of these events in a minute, but back to Brown. His relevance here is that his delivery reminds me of some of the worst of experiences I have had over the years at various conferences around the world, which have in turn been very funny, and sometimes hugely embarrassing.
One such instance was at a conference in Chicago, (names and places will be omitted to save blushes.) The speaker at this event not only had the delivery of a person that was sponsored by Dunlapillow, but after five minutes of droning, he realised that he was reading out the wrong paper. The fact that audience and organisers didn’t notice perhaps shows the rapturous nature of his presentation skills.
We have all, I am sure, seen countless examples of computer glitches and speakers drying up. However, once I saw a speaker (this time in Lisbon, Portugal), who had obviously either been careless — or was the victim of sabotage — pontificating to the audience with his back to the screen. His slides showed in foot high letters an email he had sent to an employee berating him for “wearing an ‘inappropriate pair of trousers’ at the firm’s annual meeting.” This poor soul looked bemused, as this was obviously not where the laugh he was building up to was supposed to come. The rest of us were wondering what constituted an inappropriate pair of trousers, which detracted somewhat from the thrust of his presentation!
Still, these are brief diversions in what has been a long and fruitful time attending conferences and exhibitions. It is difficult presenting, even for the most confident person, and anyone with the nerve to stand up and give of their time and expertise should be congratulated.
There were no such dramas at the SME conference. Another in a series of annual events focused on the micro and nano area, as usual there was an impressive array of speakers, on the micro side covering key areas such as micro machining, micro moulding, assembly, micro forming and fabricating, and key metrology issues. As usual, though, I find the periods between presentations just as interesting as the presentations themselves. Networking and discussing the key issues with such luminaries as Tom Kurfess from Clemson University, Rhett Mayor from Georgia Institute of Technology, and Kori Ehmann from Northwestern University gives an insight that no amount of desk time will ever give.
I was surprised by the general upbeat feel from the delegates in Minneapolis. Despite the vagaries of the world economy, the speed of technological innovation in the area of micro technology is moving apace, and the growth potential of this niche is still extraordinary. The main groundswell of discussion at this event outside of the sessions was conveying to manufacturers precisely how they can adapt their current manufacturing processes to embrace a micro manufacturing regime. In some instances, existing technologies can get the ball rolling, but review Loren Evers’ article in this issue to see how a transition to new and emerging technologies can pay dividends.
Donna Bibber — a regular contributor to Commercial Micro Manufacturing magazine — also made a presentation at the event concerning micro moulding with resorbable materials which has been reworked and is published in this edition. Donna is now recognised as one of the most influential professionals in the area of micro moulding, and always attracts a huge amount of delegate interest at the events that she attends. We are delighted that she will be working as closely with us in 2009 as she has since we launched back in 2007.
A week or so back at home from Minneapolis, and it was off to Hannover. The Hannover show is on a different scale from any event I have ever been to, over 6000 exhibitors covering all areas of technology, and just shy of a million attendees during the week. The micro area is always one of the busiest, and at this event we vigorously surveyed attendees concerning various aspects of the niche. Future issues will present the findings in detail, but key demographics showed that over 75% of the 2000+ respondents during the week were either already involved in or planned to embark on a micro manufacturing project within the next 6 months, and over 60% were planning capital equipment purchase in the next 12 months, with over 70% seeking sub-contract partners for their projects. Also of huge importance to the industry and to us as an international magazine, over 85% would seek suppliers (including service suppliers) from anywhere in the world, with price, unsuprisingly, being seen as the key driver to supplier choice.
Next stop for me is the NPE show in Chicago June 22-26th, and if anyone is there and would like to meet up, please feel free to contact me. Until then, best of luck with your manufacturing endeavours, and we hope this issue and the constantly updated information resources on the sister website www.micromanu.com will help.
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Christopher E. Young
Editor/Publisher
Commercial Micro Manufacturing Magazine
chris@rapidnews.com
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