My SF Bay Area trade show calender (attn Slugbug)
or anyone else in the Bay Area who gets an urge to pick up some freebies.
First off, there are an amazing number of trade shows here, between the [link|http://www.santaclara.org/convention.html|Santa Clara Convention Center], [link|http://www.sjcc.com/sjmcc/|San Jose Convention Center], and [link|http://www.moscone.com/new_home.htm|the Moscone Center]. But here are the ones I might go to:
Januay 22-24, SJCC, [link|http://spie.org/app/exhibition/index.cfm?fuseaction=welcome&meeting_id=18|Photonics West]
I'm definitely going -- lots of fun stuff like CMOS and CCD imagers (I'm looking forward to seeing Photon Vision System's CMOS line arrays and 2Kx2K area sensors), lighting, robotics (for fiber optic assembly), and all kinds of things for fiber optics, lasers, etc.
March 13-15, Moscone, [link|http://www.esconline.com/sf/|Embedded Systems Conference SF]
My favorite trade show. Lots of energy, lots of Linux, lots of cool new stuff, lots of small companies with neat ideas, lots of Java, lots of goodies (e.g. free good beer and snacks the first night) and lots of booth bimbos! Exhibitors include chip vendors (TI, Ubicom, Toshiba, Infineon, Motorola, etc), RTOS, dev tools, IP vendors (e.g. Java, TCP/IP cores), SBCs, PC/104 computers, and more. Probably the best show, besides LWE, for the typical IWETHEYer.
April 23-25, SJCC, [link|http://www.sdexpo.com/|Software Developer Expo]
Pretty small show; I did go last year and only found a couple interesting things. I'm not sure about going this year.
May 21-23, SJCC, [link|http://www.sensorsexpo.com/spring02/index.shtml|Sensors Expo]
I've never actually been there yet, since unlike most trade shows the Sensors Expo goes all over the place, including to many smaller cities, and last time it was in SJCC I was unfortunately too busy. So I'm going to try to go this year. It should be a lot of fun for embedded geeks, with all kinds of sensors to measure all kinds of things like pressure, force, velocity, acceleration, flow, and more.
July 17-24, SJCC and Moscone, [link|http://www.semi.org/web/wexpositions.nsf/url/02westhome|Semicon West]
Although I haven't gone in a couple years, Semicon West 2001 got the prize for best freebie: a real, non-motorized scooter. San Francisco is front end (and bigger), with often a lot of automation distributors attending, so you can check out robots, stages, motors, and other such fun stuff. However, San Jose is back end, where the equipment (such as wire bonders, wafer dicers, etc) is more robotic and fun to watch than ion implanters and such.
August 12-15, Moscone, [link|http://www.linuxworldexpo.com/news/events/index.shtml|Linux World Expo]
I'm going if at all possible -- after all, hopefully I'll finally get to meet the elusive Slugbug! Another show I like, although not as much as ESC.
September (date not yet set), SJCC, [link|http://www.idema.org/events/diskcon/index.html|DiskCon USA]
I go every year, because disk drive is a big part of our business. Last year's show was almost dead, because of 9/11, the state of the disk drive business, and the shift to offshore manufacturing. However, some of the freebies were good -- I got a really cute custom stuffed animal (leopard) from Nikko Materials.
Nov 19-21, Santa Clara CC, [link|http://www.machinevisiononline.org/|Vision Show West (look under events)]
A very small show, with lots of camera and lighting vendors, but not much on the software or robotics side. But I'm going, since I've now done a machine vision project and like the field. Maybe more of the big players like Cognex will be there this time. (Note to Euros: in many ways the European, especially German, machine vision market is ahead of the US market).
Tony
Embedded Geek
