TABLE OF CONTENTS Cannes, 12-13 February 2004
Keywords EIPC, Conferences, Printed-circuit boards, Electronics industry
EIPC Chairman Paul Waldner welcomed over 100 delegates to the EIPC Winter Conference. Not that it felt like winter, Cannes drummed up some nice warm sunshine for the 2 days such that coffee and a chat could be taken on the hotel terrace underneath the palm trees. Inside the Montfleury Hotel Conference room the programme unfolded to help delegates adapt to a changing PCB world.
Thursday, 12 February
The first session, chaired by Paul Waldner of mie (Plate 1), was entitled Management Overview, which covered a rather wide range of topics.
The first speaker was Walt Custer (Plate 2), who tends to look at the industry from the top down, which gives him a pretty good view. Reflecting that 2002 was a year of massive change, with a major shift to Asia, a huge build-up in China, and a strong dollar, change in the world was hardly a surprise 2 years later. That China was 18 percent up in a year back in industrial growth would startle no one, but there were certain industry sectors that merited comment.
The automotive field grew, and continues to grow, predictably. The Government and military sector was bolstered by events in the Middle East, so the 12 month aggregate is OK. The electro-medical sector, including measurement and control, is a good business to focus on, it has kept...
