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Scenes from Santa Clara

It was another successful IEEE-EMC Symposium which convened in Silicon Valley, California, USA, August 9 to 13 under the capable chairmanship of John Howard. The theme was "EMC from DC to Daylight." The venue, same as in 19996, was the giant Santa Clara Convention Center where about 175 exhibitors set up shop for the week. The mood was upbeat, and the attendance in the exhibit hall was consistently crowded.

AR Worldwide, Fischer Custom Communications, Rohde & Schwarz and ETS-Lindgren had the largest exhibits both horizontally and vertically which proved once again that this trade show has outgrown hotels and needs to be in a convention center every year. Total attendance was 2,570, more than last year's symposium in Boston (2,117) but still below the attendance at the 2000 show in Washington, DC (3,200).

Shuttle buses kept people moving to and from the three main hotels. The Great Adventure amusement park's roller coaster, in the midst of everything accounted for the screaming.

One of the highlights of the week was the Wednesday night gala at the Mountain Winery with multiple food buffets and bars, plenty of tables and chairs, and a variety of musical groups to keep people entertained. The bus ride to the winery on the winding road with no guard rails was a thrill as were the standing ovations at Thursday's Awards Luncheon for two EMC award winners, Drs. Norman Violette and Clayton Paul, the latter accepting a year early.

Forty-four ham radio operators gathered for their annual luncheon in the Convention Center, while the dB Society held its 29th annual "picnic" at historic MacArthur restaurant in Palo Alto.

Next year we'll meet at Chicago's Navy Pier from August 8 to 12 with the theme "Experience the Energy! EMC2005." Tom Braxton is chairman. Future symposia will be in Portland, Oregon, USA (2006), chaired by Henry Benitez; Honolulu, Hawaii, USA (2007), chaired by Janet O'Neil at a different time, mid-July, to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the EMC Society in the 50th state; and Detroit, Michigan, USA (2008), chaired by Kimball Williams. Two candidate cities for 2009 are Austin, Texas, USA, where the 1997 Symposium was held, and Fort Lauderdale, Florida, USA, which would be a new venue for us.

Meanwhile, see you next year in "Your Kind of Town."

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