Page 10 - EETEurope FlipBook February

10 EE|Times EUROPE

OPINION | EMBEDDED
The electronica 2020 event generally didn’t
Online Events May live up to expectations as a virtual trade fair,
and CES 2021 was OK but lacked the buzz and
engagement of an in-person event. In terms
Provide Front-Row Seats of interactivity and ability to engage, I have
been disappointed in the virtual trade fairs.
As my schoolteacher might have written in
But Still Lack Interaction my end-of-term report, “There’s room for
improvement.”
It isn’t for a lack of trying. Event organizers
do appear to be experimenting in different
By Nitin Dahad ways. Many of the company presentations
are very slick — I would say they’re probably
better than live, as you are able to watch them
The last in-person, physical conference I attended was without distraction. Project the video onto a
embedded world 2020 in Nuremberg. That’s now a distant memory big screen, and it feels like you’re there.
— and this year, with the conference going all-digital, I wonder how
effective the new format will be for people like me who rely on net- Whether it’s a business
working and face-to-face meetings to obtain the best information.
Don’t get me wrong: Having looked at the conference program meeting or an informal
online, it’s really comprehensive: structured around 10 tracks, from encounter, there’s real value
systems-on-chip and embedded OSes to the internet of things and
autonomous and intelligent systems. For a market and technology in the real-world experience.
learning experience, there’s an abundance of information available for all aspects of
embedded-systems design and development. One event that did go some way toward
The embedded community is close-knit, however, and trade fairs like this are an essential providing the interactivity of a live event
outlet for socializing as well as for exchanging experiences and ideas. In-person trade fairs offer was Embedded Tech Trends, held in January
an opportunity to catch up with customers, prospects, former colleagues, suppliers, and even and hosted by Jerry Gipper of VITA. Unlike
potential investors. They also enable serendipitous meetings — the kind where you bump into many of the other events I’ve attended, at
someone you don’t know and end up having a conversation that brings you something of value, Embedded Tech Trends, the panel participants
such as a breakthrough approach you hadn’t thought of before, a new product idea, or even a could see each other and openly interact. On
connection that leads to the formation of a new startup. top of that, Gipper’s use of the Kahoot online
This community spirit dates back for years. My experience started in the 1990s, when I used to platform enabled attendees to participate in
travel to the Embedded Systems Conference West (ESC West) in San Jose, California. In that era, quizzes and surveys. I would go as far as to say
the show was the place to be for the embedded-systems ecosystem. On the flight from London I actually enjoyed it.
to San Francisco, I would run into many others flying to the U.S. for the same conference — both Despite this, I was heartened to read a
people I already knew and people I got to know. recent Financial Times article titled, “The fate
As ESC West fizzled out, embedded world in Nuremberg became the main global conference of conferences is not all Zoom and gloom.”
for embedded systems — and the “event” would get under way at the airport. Whether one was It laments the disappointment of virtual
flying from London Heathrow, Stansted, or Luton, it was always the same experience at the gate: versions of CES 2021 and Davos, stating that
Almost every other person getting ready to board the plane was “going to embedded.” The con- a careful return to in-person events and
versations would start there and go all week, until the return flight landed on Thursday or Friday. exhibitions, alongside new models for virtual
Now that we’ve had almost a year of virtual meetings and trade shows and conferences, are we and hybrid conferencing, should be welcomed.
getting anywhere near to recreating that experience? The newspaper highlighted the experience
The answer is a definite no. of one major event organizer as an indicator:
Informa has been running large events since
last summer, and it expects almost all of its
non-Chinese physical events to run starting
in June this year.
One statement from the article stood
out for me, though: “Against the drawbacks
should be set the human desire to exchange
views face to face, and the evidence that
people yearn to spring back after disaster —
sometimes to excess.”
That is my thought entirely. We can have
as much as we want of online presentations.
But in-person, face-to-face interaction is
IMAGE: NITIN DAHAD rience. Whether it’s a business meeting or an
really vital for providing the complete expe-
informal encounter, there’s real value in the
real-world experience. ■

FEBRUARY 2021 | www.eetimes.eu Nitin Dahad is editor-in-chief of Embedded.