Thursday at EuMW08

Suds with the boys on Wednesday Night

Its time to cram - the last day of the exhibition was the usual frantic start as exhibitors, delegates and the press were all busy trying to squeeze in as many last minute appointments as possible. By the end of the day, the cumulative impact of talking and listening, demoing, brainstorming, and answering questions had left most attendees with depleted energy reserves. Certainly by 4:30, as the work crews arrived to tear down the exhibition stands and pull up the carpet, I was ready to take my notes from three days of meetings and pack it up.

Richard Mumford and I have identified many excellent editorial opportunities for the new year and I will need the plane ride home just to organize all the proposed articles, webinars, white papers and special projects onto the 2009 editorial calendar. I am very excited with the way next year is shaping up for editorial and this show has been a big contributor, thanks to both the conference and the exhibitors. I will be writing a show wrap-up to conclude our live coverage of EuMW 2008.

I hope many of you have had the chance to visit our Online Show Daily (OSD) coverage (http://www.mwjournal.com/2008/EUMW/) - the exhibitor perspectives, chairmen messages, the blogs, podcasts, videos (as part of the Virtual Trade Stands) and special articles. The show site will be updated with several remaining new posts through the early part of next week after which we will keep the site available for our readers to use as a reference. The Journal staff at the show and back in our Norwood offices worked very hard to bring you this show coverage and we would like to hear back from you. Let us know what you liked and what you might like different.

Finally, I'd like to thank our OSD sponsors - RFMD, Rohde & Schwarz and TriQuint Semiconductor. Signing off from Amsterdam , this is David Vye. Safe travels home.

Wednesday at EuMW08

The EuMW Welcome Reception, sponsored by Agilent Technologies was held Tuesday night immediately following the first day of the exhibition. This event provided an opportunity for both conference attendees and exhibitors to mingle over drinks and hors d’oeuvre, before several speeches from the conference chair and a message from the event sponsor discussing new show related initiatives. MWJ European Editor, Richard Mumford was on hand for the entire event and files his report in the daily news update (http://www.mwjournal.com/News/article.asp?HH_ID=AR_6733 ).




Richard Mumford writing up his coverage of the Evening Reception.

The MWJ Online Show Daily War Room. Managing Editor Keith Moore files the days press releases and Web Editor, Sam Bookman uploads the day's multi-media content while Account Manager, Mike Hallman provides his usual helpful input.

Yesterday was a busy one for the MWJ staff on both sides of the Atlantic as we rushed to upload the videos shot on Tuesday for the Virtual Trade Stands(http://www.mwjournal.com/2008/EuMW/VTB/) and press releases. We have many photos from the conference and exhibition to post in the next couple of days, so stay tuned.

Quick run-down of my day – met with CST, ParkerVision, Focus Microwave, Times Microwave, Thunderline-Z, TriQuint Semiconductor (at their free “GaAs Class” workshop), and Ansoft. While Tuesday seemed to be a moderate day for floor traffic, the vendors I met were gleaming over the heavier traffic on Wednesday. It is unusual to see the greater traffic on day two, but the back-to-back plenary sessions midday Tuesday may explain for the lower numbers on the first day. Checking in with registration Wednesday morning, I am told that over 3,500 people have registered for the event so far (approximately 2,300 in advance and over 1,200 onsite). Of those registered, over 1,500 were in attendance for the conference and exhibition, while 2,000 attendees were here just for the exhibition.
.

Video Interviews Are Up on our EuMW Virtual Trade Stands!

The MWJ editors conducted 7 video interviews yesterday at EuMW and they are now posted on each company's Virtual Trade Stand which are part of our Online Show Daily web site dedicated to EuMW coverage. The companies participating with videos are Anritsu, AWR, CST, Keithley, M/A-COM, Rohde & Schwarz and Triquint. Tune in to see the unique offerings of these companies on display at EuMW.

EuMW08 Day 1

Daniel Ong and Brian Battaglia of HVVi Semiconductor
stop by as we are setting up the MWJ Stand at EuMW 2008
on Monday afternoon.


The rain is back and so are the attendees as the first day of the EuMW gets underway. Traffic on the floor was heavy throughout most of the day, especially by mid-afternoon. Richard Mumford and I started our day with a local camera crew, conducting "in-stand" interviews with representatives from companies participating with our Virtual Trade Stands on the MWJ Online Show Daily Site.


Richard took the bulk of European-based companies (Rohde & Schwarz, CST) as well as Keithley, while I met with M/A-Com Technology Solutions (the new commercial business sector of M/A-Com Cobham); AWR Corp.; Triquint Semiconductor and Anritsu.

The video team will be working through the night editing the video so that we can post these interviews by the start of business on Wednesday. Please check in to see what these companies are saying about their latest technologies and impressions of EuMW.

Lots of presence from test and measurement vendors, simulation software providers, foundries, and component manufacturers. I'm hearing lots of buzz over infrastructure (backhaul), defense, millimeter-wave opportunities, the need for speed in test & measurement, cost-conscious solutions, .... did I mention millimeter-waves (Agilent was showing off its 500GHz VNA among a number of exciting test solutions).

National Instruments had a very interesting demo of its RF Multi-protocol Test System, Auriga is here with its active device characterization system - sharing a stand with a harmonic load-pull measurement system from Focus Microwave and at the Microave Journal stand we are previewing the upcoming Microwave Journal China site (sorry - you have to be here to see it) and giving away "wicked cool" MWJ Tee-Shirts.

We have lots of companies to visit tomorrow, so stay tuned for our next update.

EuMW Update

As David blogged earlier, EuMW is well underway and we hope you have a chance to attend this year. To keep up with all of the action at the conference and exhibition, we have our Online Show Daily so even if you are not there, you can see what is going on. In addition to the conference messages, exhibitor perspectives, news, product releases and virtual trade booths, we also have 3 audio casts covering the conference events, history of EuMW and what to see and do in Amsterdam.

Today we video taped some exhibitor interviews to see what is new and hot on the show floor. These will be posted tomorrow in the virtual trade booths so check back then to see them. We like to post things quickly or even in real time so you get up to date information.

My Dinner with Carl

MWJ Publisher Carl Sheffres goes international
at the NYC Pizza Parlor in Amsterdam

All in all, its nice to see the sun today (between sessions) after a dismal, rainy Sunday in Amsterdam. Sightseeing was a rather damp experience for us Microwave Journal staffers who braved the wet weather and severe jet-lag in order to sample the local culture and cuisine. Yes, we went to the Van Gogh and Rijk Museums as well as the Melkweg, but it was the Irish bars that provided the comforting stew and suds.

It is now a busy Monday morning as European Microwave Week 2008 delegates register for the conferences and workers assemble the exhibition space. By 8:30 when the first sessions of the day began most attendees were already in one of the many sessions in progress. The day started with a healthy mix of microwave and millimeter-wave MMIC (GaAs) and Silicon IC talks from EuMIC and wireless transceiver presentations from EuWiT.

The EuMIC Plenary Opening got underway just before 11:00 during which four seperate EuWiT sessions took place. Meanwhile, three all day measurement-based sessions (EuMC and EuMC/EuMIC) were held on power amplifier modeling and linearization; advances in modeling low and high power devices; and determining/dealing with errors in Mw measurements. The EuWiT plenary is scheduled for the afternoon while a number of EuMIC sessions will take place.