I just got back from the Embedded Systems Conference in Boston. We go there every year, along with the ESC show in San Jose. After the gloom at the show last year, I was pretty apprehensive.
With so many mixed messages relating to the state of our economy, I really had no idea what to expect. Last year, our booth traffic was decent, but the theme of the day was "I'm between jobs". Not good.
Looking back at the two days of this year's show, I'm feeling a lot better about the state of at least the engineering segment of our economy. We started the show with a mob of people at our booth - all five of us blue shirts had people talking with us and a few more in waiting. I don't think I stopped talking for the first two hours. After that, traffic slowed a bit and I was able to snap a few pictures. We had good crowds throughout both days of the show.
We had our best opening day in the four years I've been here. There
was no gloom like last year. I only spoke with one between jobs engineer
the whole day. The throng of folks at the ESC booth for the backpack
giveaway was intense.
They were giving away 500 backpacks full of goodies, including a Ti robotics development kit. I'm not sure, but it looked like they got rushed by all 500 people just as the doors opened.
We may not be out of the economic woods yet, but based on my view from
the show floor, I'm feeling very upbeat and certainly am confident that
our industry is back.
Duane Benson
"I love it when a plan comes together"
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