Trends

What did the Polish Evertiq bring? Trends, localism, but above all "live people"

This year's Evertiq Expo was not so much exceptional in that it was held on the day of the Czech national holiday at the national stadium in Warsaw, Poland, or that it featured an exceptionally diverse range of current trends in electronics. But above all, it was the fact that it actually took place. Live people met here. After more than two years when all conferences and trade fairs tried to move online, there were indeed hundreds of exhibitors and thousands of visitors. Under one roof, in one place, engaged in constant debate. The main topics will not come as much of a surprise to PCB connoisseurs. Much was made of the rapid development of 5G networks, which bring further fundamental acceleration and the need for further miniaturisation of boards. Related to this are further shifts in the development of the so-called Internet of Things (IoT), artificial intelligence and the security of cloud systems architecture. However, a sort of leitmotif of this year's event is logically the coronavirus crisis and the associated disruption of traditional supplier relationships across continents.

Jakub Klama and Wojciech Kloska, in a talk entitled De-overseas your business: the benefits of local production in a globalized distribution chain, said that the world as we remember it at the end of 2019 has changed significantly. The crisis has highlighted the limits of manufacturing on the other side of the world. Instead of striving for the lowest possible price, other benefits of producing within Europe have become key. Agility, the possibility of easy customisation, safety and of course a greener way of doing business, a lower carbon footprint and above all significantly shorter delivery times.

A whiff of the good old days

How did Ondřej Horký and Dennis Hausner see it? Business managers from Gatema PCB and Kubatronik, who were here for the first time this year at the joint booth number 44 near the conference room?

"For me personally, Warsaw Evertiq was amazing precisely because I found myself among many people. For me personally, it was also a breath of hope that the 'good old days' of seeing people face to face would return. We have forgotten that part of business, yet without it many companies would not exist today. Today, we're going a bit strong. Emails work, video conferencing is getting better, but full-fledged relationships are awfully hard to establish. And if you don't have relationships, someone else can always replace you," says Dennis Hausner, who came to the meeting from Geislingen, Germany.

Ondřej Horký adds. "The opportunity to meet other companies in the industry and have fun with them was banal not long ago, but today it is a special event for everyone. To see each other, to hear the opinions of others, to talk about trends. Moreover, for us it was the first opportunity to introduce Gatema and Kubatronik as a single entity," says Gatema PCB's Sales Manager.

Award for Gatema

"It was obvious from the first moments that people were expressly excited to meet both their customers and other companies in the industry. Despite the rather lukewarm interest in the lectures themselves, it was clear from the first moment that this year was going to be a record year in terms of attendance. This was confirmed by the owners of Evertiq after they presented our company with the first prize in the competition for the most invited and registered visitors. This little thing also opened the door to a lot of conversations with customers and lit up the name of Gatema the night before the conference," adds Luděk Buchta, marketing manager.

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"The whole market is changing all the time, with companies across Europe merging, taking over from each other and, unfortunately, some even closing down. This clearly shows that we must remain a strong company and make the most of the potential that the symbiosis between subsidiaries allows us. Also, the participation of a Polish-speaking colleague showed that despite the prevalence of English as the main language of our industry, it is beneficial to address customers (at least at the beginning of cooperation) in their native language.  Thanks to the participation of Dennis Hausner and Jacek Olesch, we were finally able to present our Group to customers as a major European player and manufacturer - a specialist in the segments we focus on," concludes Ondřej Horký.

Dennis Hausner appreciated the opportunity to see the trends as presented by the competition. "We all know where our entire industry is heading. Everything has to be smaller and smaller, yet more powerful and faster. We can't do that without working exclusively with high-frequency and high-speed materials, which are also constantly evolving every year. This, too, will play a role for European manufacturers in the near future. Because there will be fewer and fewer simple boards that can be made by the kilometre, but more and more sophisticated boards, typically HDi, that will be atypical. This is an interesting prospect for us manufacturers. Both price-wise and relationship-wise," Dennis Hausner concludes optimistically and adds a little more pessimistically: "I was extremely energised by the meeting. Now we have Munich to look forward to, which is even bigger. But I'm afraid that the coronavirus measures will start to tighten up again and I'm very curious to see if there will be any more trade fairs."

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