By Karen Lightman, Executive Director, MEMS Industry Group
I am finally over the jet lag and able to share my thoughts from MEMS Industry Group (MIG) Conference Japan, MIG’s inaugural conference in Asia that was held on April 24. But first let me quickly express my happiness to have returned to Japan after a three+ year hiatus. (My last visit was before the tsunami/earthquake.) I ate sushi every day, drank sake, partook of a Japanese bath and consumed green tea (in very large quantities). What a great place to visit.
A few months ago I invited you to spend a week with me in Japan, as there were several partner events that dovetailed with our MIG conference, including the NanoMicro Biz ROBOTECH and MEMS Engineer Forum. On April 23 I traveled to Yokohama to give a keynote at NanoMicro Biz’s 20th annual International Micromachine/Nanotech Symposium.
The conference had been relocated to Yokohama, an impressive “city by the bay” that is only a 30-minute train ride from Tokyo. And while the exhibition site was smaller than previous years, the Symposium was still impressive, and my presentation on “MEMS and Sensor Trends, Paving the Way for the Internet of Things” was well received by a diverse and international audience. I also had the opportunity to represent MIG in our booth and sneak in a few MIG-branded chocolates created for us by the conference organizers (yum) as well as connect with several MIG members and partners in attendance.
Then it was back to Tokyo to kick off MIG Conference Japan with MIG Events and Program Manager Chivonne Hyppolite. Simply put, the conference exceeded expectations in terms of quality/number of attendees as well as content. I am grateful for the guidance and support MIG received from Mr. Susumu Kaminaga of SKG Partners and Mr. Yoshio Sekiguchi of OMRON; without them, there is no way that the conference would have happened let alone be successful.
What excited me the most about MIG Conference Japan was the originality of the content provided by our keynotes and featured speakers. (Here is the agenda.) The focus of the conference was on navigating the challenges of the global MEMS supply chain. Several of the speakers gave their no-holds-barred view of these challenges, including the keynote from Sony Communications, Takeshi Ito, Chief Technology Officer, Head of Technology, Sony Mobile Communications. Mr. Ito’s shared his thoughts on the future of MEMS and sensors (and in particular, alternative uses for acoustic MEMS), which I found very interesting, and I truly appreciated his end-user/OEM perspective. I also thoroughly enjoyed the presentation by Leopold Beer, regional president Asia Pacific, BOSCH Sensortec, who explored the criticality of balancing higher integration and rapid product cycles with the need to support multiple applications.
Honestly all the presentations at MIG Conference Japan were impressive, and I am not going to do a play-by-play here for you. (Sorry folks.) But what I will do is urge you to consider attending our next big event in Asia: MIG Conference Shanghai, which will be held September 11-12, 2014 in Shanghai in in partnership with Shanghai Institute of Microsystem and Information Technology (SIMIT) and Shanghai Industrial µTechnology Research Institute (SITRI).
Our Shanghai event will be more focused on the theme of the Internet of Things/Services/Everything as well as the challenges of a global MEMS supply chain. Please join me there to further explore the future of MEMS and sensors. For more information, you can visit our website.