Monday, August 25, 2008
Europa Moves to Dresden in 2009
We are thrilled about Europa's move to Dresden next year. Qimonda, Infineon and AMD, nearly 60 percent of European IC output, is located nearby. In addition, about 80 percent of Germany’s PC cells are made within 150 km of Dresden and the region enjoys a concentration of research institutions, universities and over 1200 equipment and materials companies. We explored movong there last year when we moved to Stuttgart from Munich but they weren't ready. Now we've finally got the agreement .
Thursday, August 21, 2008
First Time Attendees
For the second year in a row, 27% of SEMICON West visitors were first time attendees. This is an important number for us at SEMI and we work hard to keep it high.
First timers are important because they represent new influences in the buying decisions of traditional SEMICON products and services, and new markets for SEMICON exhibitors. Buying influences in the semiconductor industry are constantly changing because of reorganizations, new engineering staff, and the increase in ‘ad hoc” or temporary buying teams that are assembled to equip a new line or address a specific issue. In its 30+ years, SEMICON has established itself as key milestone in the semiconductor buying cycle in North America and the world. Sustaining that role requires everyone in the buying and specifying process to learn how the event can help with new vendor sourcing, current vendor evaluations and new product investigations.
Another source of new buying influences are fabless companies, packaging and test houses, and system level OEM (HP, Apple, etc.) that increasingly have an impact on equipment and materials buying. This is particularly important with new packaging technologies such as copper wire bonding and TSV, as well as new materials, test, MEMs, inspection and other categories.
In addition to new buying and specifying influences within existing customers, first time attendees also consist of buyers from new and emerging markets. Clearly, PV was a big attraction at this year’s event, attracting thousands of buyer/specifiers from crystalline and thin film based PV cell manufacturers. Other new markets very prevalent at the West was solid state lighting, MEMs companies, fuel cell makers, and bio-chip makers (I’m guessing on that last one).
For SEMI, the challenge is to reach these first time attendees and get them to the show. These folks aren’t usually on our databases and often don’t appear in our extensive 3rd party lists. We have great partnerships and promotional awareness (advertising, email and editorial) through all the major industry magazines, but we spend a lot of time and effort on 3rd tier or fringe publications just to reach these first time attendees. Our awareness among core audiences is nearly 100%, but diminishes as we reach new titles (such as design engineer, software engineer), new markets such as SSL, and up the food chain to system level engineers in consumer electronics, automotive, health and other markets. We need to work and spend more to reach these new titles, job functions and markets and we do.
A critical component in finding and attracting these first time attendees is our exhibitors. They are the ones who are typically first aware of changes in personnel and in the best position to extend an invite. Its another reason why pre-show promotion by exhibitors is so important.
First timers are important because they represent new influences in the buying decisions of traditional SEMICON products and services, and new markets for SEMICON exhibitors. Buying influences in the semiconductor industry are constantly changing because of reorganizations, new engineering staff, and the increase in ‘ad hoc” or temporary buying teams that are assembled to equip a new line or address a specific issue. In its 30+ years, SEMICON has established itself as key milestone in the semiconductor buying cycle in North America and the world. Sustaining that role requires everyone in the buying and specifying process to learn how the event can help with new vendor sourcing, current vendor evaluations and new product investigations.
Another source of new buying influences are fabless companies, packaging and test houses, and system level OEM (HP, Apple, etc.) that increasingly have an impact on equipment and materials buying. This is particularly important with new packaging technologies such as copper wire bonding and TSV, as well as new materials, test, MEMs, inspection and other categories.
In addition to new buying and specifying influences within existing customers, first time attendees also consist of buyers from new and emerging markets. Clearly, PV was a big attraction at this year’s event, attracting thousands of buyer/specifiers from crystalline and thin film based PV cell manufacturers. Other new markets very prevalent at the West was solid state lighting, MEMs companies, fuel cell makers, and bio-chip makers (I’m guessing on that last one).
For SEMI, the challenge is to reach these first time attendees and get them to the show. These folks aren’t usually on our databases and often don’t appear in our extensive 3rd party lists. We have great partnerships and promotional awareness (advertising, email and editorial) through all the major industry magazines, but we spend a lot of time and effort on 3rd tier or fringe publications just to reach these first time attendees. Our awareness among core audiences is nearly 100%, but diminishes as we reach new titles (such as design engineer, software engineer), new markets such as SSL, and up the food chain to system level engineers in consumer electronics, automotive, health and other markets. We need to work and spend more to reach these new titles, job functions and markets and we do.
A critical component in finding and attracting these first time attendees is our exhibitors. They are the ones who are typically first aware of changes in personnel and in the best position to extend an invite. Its another reason why pre-show promotion by exhibitors is so important.
Friday, August 08, 2008
Inquiry Distribution at Trade Shows
Following SEMICON West, I am reminded of one the truths about trade show exhibiting that exhibitors don’t often realize. This truth is especially important in trade shows like SEMICONs-- where the square footage is large, the products are complex and specialized, and the customers are busy. The truth is:
The number of inquiries you generate has little to do with where you’re located on the show floor. Inquiries are primarily a result of your product category, your pre-show promotion, and the booth execution.
This isn’t a theory.
I was recently given a report that illustrated the number of inquiries generated by every booth of the SEMICON West inquiry system. The report showed that inquiries are randomly distributed across each hall. There is no correlation for inquiries from the back of the hall or the front of the hall. There is no correlation for inquiries for cross aisle and corner booths and inline locations. Inquiries are not correlated between islands, inlines and peninsula configurations.
It’s not even evident that inquiries are correlated with the size of booth!
The data from SEMICON West has shown for the past three years that inquiries are a result of good exhibit marketing. Inquiries are primarily correlated with:
• Conducting pre-show direct mail and email with exciting and compelling reasons to visit a booth (see a demo, learn more about new product, enter a sweepstakes)
• Companies that use SMARTBOOTH in combination with attractive directory descriptions that reach visitors with rational and thoughtful reasons to visit
• Companies that have hot new products or technologies (new, new, new is what visitors want)
• Booths that have open, inviting floor plans and/or demos
• Booth that with an exhibit staff that is trained and managed to capture inquiries
Monday, July 28, 2008
Gadi Singer SEMICON West Keynote Conclusion
Here is the conclusion to Gadi Singer's keynote. I think you find other segments of his speech on Youtube.
Brand Marketing in High Technology
I recently met a person who reminded me of many of the common errors and failed strategies I see in high technology marketing. Many of these failures revolve around the interpretation of the word “brand,” and how if managed properly managed, it can possess magical properties.
This person was a very experienced marketer who had just joined a SEMI member company from an ad agency. This person was very impressive--clearly competent and creative, perhaps even charismatic. But he/she had no experience in semiconductor manufacturing and I didn’t sense an affinity for the technology, industry and product issues that would most impact his/her company and career.
Being from an agency, this person knew how to promote and articulate the value of big, impactful and professional marketing communications. They seemed to be one of those agency-type people who can sell ideas--big ideas. They offer a seemingly new way to compete in the marketplace, based on ingenuity, cleverness, some call it marketing. These are the people who are able to get the ear of the CEO and suddenly get a massive budget for a huge campaign, such as TV advertising or massive trade show spend. You don’t see these kinds of folks in semiconductors anymore, but you see them all the time in computers and IT, and they were abundant during the dot com era.
Their arguments and experience--their frame of reference--usually revolves around the idea of brand. Concepts like brand positioning, brand awareness, and brand equity dominate their conversation. These are important and useful concepts but the people I am talking about are able to use these arguments to captivate a boardroom and justify significant new budget. They are often effective in utilizing solid research into customer insights and their campaigns are usually bold, beautiful and expensive.
These aren’t the people, however, who I see become CEOs or survive long at the VP of marketing level. In fact, when I see the step-function increase in marketing spend—the huge product launch or identity campaign-- I almost am certain that someone will lose their job in the 12-24 months.
I have seen it dozens of times. Hot shot joins company with cool marketing resume: maybe Apple or Proctor and Gamble background or from an agency who did wild stuff for someone like Sun, HP or Intel. They are hired because “they know marketing” and have been previously successful and have clear experience in managing a large budget or successful campaign. Together with an agency, they are able to successfully frame the company’s challenges into a brand issue—not product, or price, sales, or technology or even a promotion issues—but a brand issue requiring a new a massive campaign or new corporate identity.
Invariably what happens is the campaign or new identity is launched with great fanfare to great applause. It may even get associated with a successful jump in sales for a quarter or two or three. But at some point the business cycle turns or the competition catches up. Memories of the big campaign or product launch fade. The issues that again dominate the critical business meetings are about features, technologies, cost, and price. Talk about brand fades, the brand magic disappears, the marcom budget gets cut.
What happens to the lead marketer, the hot shot, in this scenario? Sometimes they get blamed for the eventual business turn. Sometimes they leave to pursue a fresh opportunity and a new budget (often with an agency). Sometimes their relationships with the product people and other folks in the business--who resented the new ideas, the big campaign and the access to the CEO—get so strained that they get shown the door.
Rarely do they survive. When they do survive, sometimes they become the “make no waves” cynic, the obstructionist who’s always quick to say “been there, done that” and sucks the life out every meeting they attend.
Believe me. People in high-tech who get their companies to do big campaigns on behalf of a brand just don’t stay long.
I suppose that sometimes they grow and mature, bring new energies to new problems, bring a detailed commitment to optimizing the full marketing mix. But you don’t see those people very much. They don’t talk about brand. They talk about the detailed, complicated stuff that it takes to build and ship a product. These are the people that VPs and CEOs
I don’t why this person I met reminds of those marketers and agency types who are quick to justify investments in concepts as ethereal as brand, but he/she did. I really think great marketers talk and represent their product as complicated, multifaceted, sophisticated, changing things that meet customer needs. Not a brand.
This person was a very experienced marketer who had just joined a SEMI member company from an ad agency. This person was very impressive--clearly competent and creative, perhaps even charismatic. But he/she had no experience in semiconductor manufacturing and I didn’t sense an affinity for the technology, industry and product issues that would most impact his/her company and career.
Being from an agency, this person knew how to promote and articulate the value of big, impactful and professional marketing communications. They seemed to be one of those agency-type people who can sell ideas--big ideas. They offer a seemingly new way to compete in the marketplace, based on ingenuity, cleverness, some call it marketing. These are the people who are able to get the ear of the CEO and suddenly get a massive budget for a huge campaign, such as TV advertising or massive trade show spend. You don’t see these kinds of folks in semiconductors anymore, but you see them all the time in computers and IT, and they were abundant during the dot com era.
Their arguments and experience--their frame of reference--usually revolves around the idea of brand. Concepts like brand positioning, brand awareness, and brand equity dominate their conversation. These are important and useful concepts but the people I am talking about are able to use these arguments to captivate a boardroom and justify significant new budget. They are often effective in utilizing solid research into customer insights and their campaigns are usually bold, beautiful and expensive.
These aren’t the people, however, who I see become CEOs or survive long at the VP of marketing level. In fact, when I see the step-function increase in marketing spend—the huge product launch or identity campaign-- I almost am certain that someone will lose their job in the 12-24 months.
I have seen it dozens of times. Hot shot joins company with cool marketing resume: maybe Apple or Proctor and Gamble background or from an agency who did wild stuff for someone like Sun, HP or Intel. They are hired because “they know marketing” and have been previously successful and have clear experience in managing a large budget or successful campaign. Together with an agency, they are able to successfully frame the company’s challenges into a brand issue—not product, or price, sales, or technology or even a promotion issues—but a brand issue requiring a new a massive campaign or new corporate identity.
Invariably what happens is the campaign or new identity is launched with great fanfare to great applause. It may even get associated with a successful jump in sales for a quarter or two or three. But at some point the business cycle turns or the competition catches up. Memories of the big campaign or product launch fade. The issues that again dominate the critical business meetings are about features, technologies, cost, and price. Talk about brand fades, the brand magic disappears, the marcom budget gets cut.
What happens to the lead marketer, the hot shot, in this scenario? Sometimes they get blamed for the eventual business turn. Sometimes they leave to pursue a fresh opportunity and a new budget (often with an agency). Sometimes their relationships with the product people and other folks in the business--who resented the new ideas, the big campaign and the access to the CEO—get so strained that they get shown the door.
Rarely do they survive. When they do survive, sometimes they become the “make no waves” cynic, the obstructionist who’s always quick to say “been there, done that” and sucks the life out every meeting they attend.
Believe me. People in high-tech who get their companies to do big campaigns on behalf of a brand just don’t stay long.
I suppose that sometimes they grow and mature, bring new energies to new problems, bring a detailed commitment to optimizing the full marketing mix. But you don’t see those people very much. They don’t talk about brand. They talk about the detailed, complicated stuff that it takes to build and ship a product. These are the people that VPs and CEOs
I don’t why this person I met reminds of those marketers and agency types who are quick to justify investments in concepts as ethereal as brand, but he/she did. I really think great marketers talk and represent their product as complicated, multifaceted, sophisticated, changing things that meet customer needs. Not a brand.
Top Ten Reasons SEMICON West was a Huge Success
During a dismal market environment, verified visitor attendance was up nearly 20% at SEMICON West. What were the reasons? Here's my list.
10. Better website—This was our second year that SEMICON West was supported by a dedicated website. The results were more web visits, more page views, more time spent per page, and more opportunity for attendees to find what they need at the SEMICON West.
9. Better media partnerships—We have expanded our media partnerships to a broader circle of international media companies, expanding our reach in advertising, email and web.
8. Better email marketing—Through best of breed technologies and metric-based management, we are able to target and optimize our email messaging much better than the past.
7. Industry partnerships—We are fortunate to work with great partners such as IMAPS, MEPTEC, Lithography Workshop, Southwest Test, ITRS, FOA, SPIE and others, who are able to offer more and better reasons to attend SEMICON West.
6. Refreshed brand image—This year’s theme--Infinite Possibilities—was supported by a new look and feel and brand execution that emphasized new, new, new.
5. Better segmentation—One of the things we have successfully done is break the show down into separate segments. From program design, to sales, to audience recruitment, we really manage seven events, one for wafer processing, materials, assembly/packaging, test, enabling products (systems and components), emerging technologies, and PV.
4. Systems Integration—New exhibitors like Synopsys and Cadence and programs on DFM significantly increased the number of attendees interested in the design-production-test-flow
3. Intersolar--Solar energy and PV manufacturing is hot right now and Intersolar delivered the key decision makers and conference topics. But don’t think PV was the only reason for the jump in attendance; only 11% of the total verified visitors were interested in solar exclusively.
2. Still the place to be--SEMICON West remains the central place to see the entire industry on display and to meet key suppliers and colleagues. International attendance, including top VIPs from nearly every large foundry and IDM in the world, was up this year.
And the number one reason for the attendance improvement…
1. New products and suppliers--Attendees are in desperate need for new ideas and new suppliers and West was expected to deliver both. The industry is in transition with high k/metal gate designs, productivity needs, packaging innovations, lithography roadmap questions, and many more uncertainties and SEMCION West is a good place for answers. The number of visitors interested in core products such as CVD, PVD, etch and CMP nearly doubled. Visitors come to SW to see our exhibitors’ products, ideas solutions and solutions and this year they really delivered.
10. Better website—This was our second year that SEMICON West was supported by a dedicated website. The results were more web visits, more page views, more time spent per page, and more opportunity for attendees to find what they need at the SEMICON West.
9. Better media partnerships—We have expanded our media partnerships to a broader circle of international media companies, expanding our reach in advertising, email and web.
8. Better email marketing—Through best of breed technologies and metric-based management, we are able to target and optimize our email messaging much better than the past.
7. Industry partnerships—We are fortunate to work with great partners such as IMAPS, MEPTEC, Lithography Workshop, Southwest Test, ITRS, FOA, SPIE and others, who are able to offer more and better reasons to attend SEMICON West.
6. Refreshed brand image—This year’s theme--Infinite Possibilities—was supported by a new look and feel and brand execution that emphasized new, new, new.
5. Better segmentation—One of the things we have successfully done is break the show down into separate segments. From program design, to sales, to audience recruitment, we really manage seven events, one for wafer processing, materials, assembly/packaging, test, enabling products (systems and components), emerging technologies, and PV.
4. Systems Integration—New exhibitors like Synopsys and Cadence and programs on DFM significantly increased the number of attendees interested in the design-production-test-flow
3. Intersolar--Solar energy and PV manufacturing is hot right now and Intersolar delivered the key decision makers and conference topics. But don’t think PV was the only reason for the jump in attendance; only 11% of the total verified visitors were interested in solar exclusively.
2. Still the place to be--SEMICON West remains the central place to see the entire industry on display and to meet key suppliers and colleagues. International attendance, including top VIPs from nearly every large foundry and IDM in the world, was up this year.
And the number one reason for the attendance improvement…
1. New products and suppliers--Attendees are in desperate need for new ideas and new suppliers and West was expected to deliver both. The industry is in transition with high k/metal gate designs, productivity needs, packaging innovations, lithography roadmap questions, and many more uncertainties and SEMCION West is a good place for answers. The number of visitors interested in core products such as CVD, PVD, etch and CMP nearly doubled. Visitors come to SW to see our exhibitors’ products, ideas solutions and solutions and this year they really delivered.
Monday, June 30, 2008
Nanosolar Yahoo News Group
I recently came across this video from Nanosolar where it was posted on YouTube.
What was surprising to me was not the use of YouTube or the video (it's pretty bad video...no sound), but that it was distributed through the "Nanosolar Friends" News Group on Yahoo. Subscribers to the News Group get updates on Nanosolar through Yahoo emails, which are often authored by the CEO.
There are over 48,000 members to this news group!
I am a member of a few News groups, such as Seirra Summits, but I have not seen the news ggroup system so well applied to business. Maybe I should start one on SEMI?
What was surprising to me was not the use of YouTube or the video (it's pretty bad video...no sound), but that it was distributed through the "Nanosolar Friends" News Group on Yahoo. Subscribers to the News Group get updates on Nanosolar through Yahoo emails, which are often authored by the CEO.
There are over 48,000 members to this news group!
I am a member of a few News groups, such as Seirra Summits, but I have not seen the news ggroup system so well applied to business. Maybe I should start one on SEMI?
ST- NXP Wireless Needs A New Name
Nice little riff from EETimes on the ST- NXP Wireless joint venture.
Perhaps we should move to a maore mangeable naming convention, something like ST-NXP 1.0, or better yet ST-Philips 2.0.
Perhaps we should move to a maore mangeable naming convention, something like ST-NXP 1.0, or better yet ST-Philips 2.0.
Thursday, June 19, 2008
OLED Display Video
The global organic light-emitting diode (OLED) display industry is expected to exceed $4.5 billion by 2010, up from $2.7 billion next year, according to a recent report by Global Industry Analysts
The Active-Matrix OLED (AMOELD) displays will represent the burgeoning segment in the total OLED display market. Revenues from this segment are expected to overtake passive-matrix segment and will achieve a share of about 84% of the total OLED market value by 2010. If you’ve ever seen one these displays you understand the optimism. These displays are cool!
Here’s a well done technical video from the Fruanhofer for Applied Polymer Research.
The Active-Matrix OLED (AMOELD) displays will represent the burgeoning segment in the total OLED display market. Revenues from this segment are expected to overtake passive-matrix segment and will achieve a share of about 84% of the total OLED market value by 2010. If you’ve ever seen one these displays you understand the optimism. These displays are cool!
Here’s a well done technical video from the Fruanhofer for Applied Polymer Research.
Tuesday, June 17, 2008
Inside the "Best of West"
It has been an interesting experience organizing and managing the Best of West awards program at SEMICON West.
The program was developed to replace the Technology Innovation Showcase award program that we have been running for the last 4 years. The TIS was a good program that focused exclusively on new companies and involved a booth fee to participate in the “showcase” portion of the program. The TIS Committee worked hard to find and nurture a small group of entrants every year and the winners generally received some good visibility for their innovations.
But the program did not grow and it was a struggle to find entrants. New product introductions had to be the centerpiece of SEMICON West and we needed a big, loud, prestigious vehicle to support our attendees and exhibitors.
After talking with exhibitors, the TIS committee, and influential buyers in the industry, we decided to create a more conventional trade show award program, the Best of West Award.
Key aspects of the new award program were: free to all exhibitors, prestigious judges panel, open selection criteria (based on financial impact on the industry, engineering or scientific achievement, or societal impact and benefits) and special encouragement and consideration given to start-up and smaller companies. The process was structured to recognize all finalists prior to SEMICON West to achieve maximum publicity and pre-show value, and select winner(s) at the show where demonstrations or detailed questions on the submission could be answered.
Some of the organizing issues we faced were judge selection and the judging process. We wanted to assemble a diverse set of judges including top technology leaders at device makers. We also wanted to involve academia. Fortunately, Bernie Meyerson quickly singed up giving the program instant credibility. Our editor friends at the leading trade journals all agreed to participate, even though many of them had their own award programs. One of the great advantages we had with the trade journal participation was that it gave us nearly automatic coverage of all the segments (we hoped and encouraged test specialists to select test submissions, packaging editors to select packaging, etc.). This expectation held true as the finalist selections had a wide diversity and represented a broad set of technologies in the industry. The toughest group to recruit was academia, but Godfrey Mungel and Dave Parent joined on and our panel was set.
Concerning the judge process, one of the biggest issues was the desire to balance the need for thorough technical information on each entry without overwhelming our judges with a mountain of work. As it turned out, it was difficult balance. We had about 40 entries, each one consisting of a 750-word long description, a 300-word summary and associated charts and photos. The judges’ document turned out to be over 200 pages, 2-inches thick and about 10 megabytes of data. We will probably charge a fee next year for the award entries to limit unnecessary submissions.
Another challenge was the restriction of entries to new products and technologies introduced for the first time after May 1. Several exhibitors didn’t like this restriction, some wanted non-disclosure agreements, and many wanted extensions to the submission deadline. Our members aren’t shy about strongly pushing their opinions, but we felt our process was appropriate to meet our objectives.
Another challenge in the judging progress was the requirement to attend teleconferences where each judge had to explain or advocate their selection to the other judges. This was required to best utilize and leverage the different areas of expertise on the panel. When the choice is narrowed down to just finalists, judges are going to have to consider entries outside their areas of expertise and we needed to find a way to support this. Fortunately, the judges’ discussions on the entries went amazingly well. They were able to share their perspectives effectively and I think the entire panel is well informed about the merits of each finalist. Our academic participants were especially articulate in describing their impressions (I expected the journalists to be most verbose and the customers most definitive).
Almost all of the submissions were well-written and of high quality. A few submissions included promotional copy and graphics that generated a couple of negative comments from the judges.
I am absolutely thrilled with the selection of the finalists and know that any of them are worthy for the Best of West award. I know all the finalists are hugely regarded by the judges panel and are going to receive enormous visibility and prestige for their selection. For the good of West, our industry and the entrants, I hope they make boat load of money on their new products.
We will be making tweaks to next year’s program. If you have any suggestions on how we can make the Best of West program more successful, please let me know with a phone or call or email.
The program was developed to replace the Technology Innovation Showcase award program that we have been running for the last 4 years. The TIS was a good program that focused exclusively on new companies and involved a booth fee to participate in the “showcase” portion of the program. The TIS Committee worked hard to find and nurture a small group of entrants every year and the winners generally received some good visibility for their innovations.
But the program did not grow and it was a struggle to find entrants. New product introductions had to be the centerpiece of SEMICON West and we needed a big, loud, prestigious vehicle to support our attendees and exhibitors.
After talking with exhibitors, the TIS committee, and influential buyers in the industry, we decided to create a more conventional trade show award program, the Best of West Award.
Key aspects of the new award program were: free to all exhibitors, prestigious judges panel, open selection criteria (based on financial impact on the industry, engineering or scientific achievement, or societal impact and benefits) and special encouragement and consideration given to start-up and smaller companies. The process was structured to recognize all finalists prior to SEMICON West to achieve maximum publicity and pre-show value, and select winner(s) at the show where demonstrations or detailed questions on the submission could be answered.
Some of the organizing issues we faced were judge selection and the judging process. We wanted to assemble a diverse set of judges including top technology leaders at device makers. We also wanted to involve academia. Fortunately, Bernie Meyerson quickly singed up giving the program instant credibility. Our editor friends at the leading trade journals all agreed to participate, even though many of them had their own award programs. One of the great advantages we had with the trade journal participation was that it gave us nearly automatic coverage of all the segments (we hoped and encouraged test specialists to select test submissions, packaging editors to select packaging, etc.). This expectation held true as the finalist selections had a wide diversity and represented a broad set of technologies in the industry. The toughest group to recruit was academia, but Godfrey Mungel and Dave Parent joined on and our panel was set.
Concerning the judge process, one of the biggest issues was the desire to balance the need for thorough technical information on each entry without overwhelming our judges with a mountain of work. As it turned out, it was difficult balance. We had about 40 entries, each one consisting of a 750-word long description, a 300-word summary and associated charts and photos. The judges’ document turned out to be over 200 pages, 2-inches thick and about 10 megabytes of data. We will probably charge a fee next year for the award entries to limit unnecessary submissions.
Another challenge was the restriction of entries to new products and technologies introduced for the first time after May 1. Several exhibitors didn’t like this restriction, some wanted non-disclosure agreements, and many wanted extensions to the submission deadline. Our members aren’t shy about strongly pushing their opinions, but we felt our process was appropriate to meet our objectives.
Another challenge in the judging progress was the requirement to attend teleconferences where each judge had to explain or advocate their selection to the other judges. This was required to best utilize and leverage the different areas of expertise on the panel. When the choice is narrowed down to just finalists, judges are going to have to consider entries outside their areas of expertise and we needed to find a way to support this. Fortunately, the judges’ discussions on the entries went amazingly well. They were able to share their perspectives effectively and I think the entire panel is well informed about the merits of each finalist. Our academic participants were especially articulate in describing their impressions (I expected the journalists to be most verbose and the customers most definitive).
Almost all of the submissions were well-written and of high quality. A few submissions included promotional copy and graphics that generated a couple of negative comments from the judges.
I am absolutely thrilled with the selection of the finalists and know that any of them are worthy for the Best of West award. I know all the finalists are hugely regarded by the judges panel and are going to receive enormous visibility and prestige for their selection. For the good of West, our industry and the entrants, I hope they make boat load of money on their new products.
We will be making tweaks to next year’s program. If you have any suggestions on how we can make the Best of West program more successful, please let me know with a phone or call or email.
Friday, June 06, 2008
International Experiential Marketing Association
I recently came across a website for the International Experiential Marketing Association (IXMA). These folks are part of the wave of contemporary marketers who believe that traditional advertising and brand marketing that relies on soft messages and bulk impressions no longer work. People don’t believe in advertising and they expect your brand to look professional and be well executed. In their words, your customers “want respect, recognition and relevant communication, and they've indicated that the best way to give it to them is through experiences that are personally relevant, memorable, sensory, emotional and meaningful.”
I can’t help but agree with them.
Trade shows are an essential part of these critical customer experiences. They are dramatic demonstrations of how you listen, how you innovate, how you partner, and how you
respect your customer. Too often at SEMICON events, this reflection isn’t a good one. Too often booths are set up to recreate a sales experience. Exbibitors have offices or meeting rooms and sales people ready to grab your hand and shake it out of your socket. They give away chotskes and throw parties. They use data sheets for graphics and they wait passively for a customer to stroll by so they can ambush them with a badge swipe or business card.
They don’t reflect leadership, they don’t reflect innovation or creativity, they don’t reflect customer interaction.
Today's customer wants to be involved in the marketing process by being engaged in a dialogue with you and your product. They want to be excited about your products and they want to see you excited about them. They are institutionally directed to commoditize your products, but emotionally they want to see exciting, rewarding, thoughtful points of differentiation.
The proponents of experiential marketing see it as a more holistic approach to the customer/brand relationship. They see it going way beyond traditional
feature-benefit methodology, engaging both rational and emotional sides of the customer.
Experiential marketing can be used in any medium, but in this industry SEMICON events afford the best scenario to create a fully immersive brand experience and platform for product differentiation. To fully leverage the SEMICON investment, exhibitors need to move beyond the customer “meet and greet” lead capture model and embrace the concepts of experiential marketing.
I can’t help but agree with them.
Trade shows are an essential part of these critical customer experiences. They are dramatic demonstrations of how you listen, how you innovate, how you partner, and how you
respect your customer. Too often at SEMICON events, this reflection isn’t a good one. Too often booths are set up to recreate a sales experience. Exbibitors have offices or meeting rooms and sales people ready to grab your hand and shake it out of your socket. They give away chotskes and throw parties. They use data sheets for graphics and they wait passively for a customer to stroll by so they can ambush them with a badge swipe or business card.They don’t reflect leadership, they don’t reflect innovation or creativity, they don’t reflect customer interaction.
Today's customer wants to be involved in the marketing process by being engaged in a dialogue with you and your product. They want to be excited about your products and they want to see you excited about them. They are institutionally directed to commoditize your products, but emotionally they want to see exciting, rewarding, thoughtful points of differentiation.
The proponents of experiential marketing see it as a more holistic approach to the customer/brand relationship. They see it going way beyond traditional
feature-benefit methodology, engaging both rational and emotional sides of the customer.
Experiential marketing can be used in any medium, but in this industry SEMICON events afford the best scenario to create a fully immersive brand experience and platform for product differentiation. To fully leverage the SEMICON investment, exhibitors need to move beyond the customer “meet and greet” lead capture model and embrace the concepts of experiential marketing.
Wednesday, June 04, 2008
Life's a Marathon, Not a Sprint.
The San Diego Rock and Roll Marathon: 21,000 Runners, 20 Bands, 26.2 Miles
This was a tough race because of a shortened training cycle that was filled with trips to SEMICON Singapore, SEMICON China and the Strategic Business Conference. But I was reasonably successful in getting in the required miles on hotel treadmills and following my plan. My goal was 4:00. My time was 3:59. But most importantly I finished with an expectation that I will run another one (I have 2 more to go to have run every major marathon in California).
From the looks of this video, maybe I had too good a time running this race?
This was a tough race because of a shortened training cycle that was filled with trips to SEMICON Singapore, SEMICON China and the Strategic Business Conference. But I was reasonably successful in getting in the required miles on hotel treadmills and following my plan. My goal was 4:00. My time was 3:59. But most importantly I finished with an expectation that I will run another one (I have 2 more to go to have run every major marathon in California).
From the looks of this video, maybe I had too good a time running this race?
Friday, May 30, 2008
WANTED: Integration Across The Supply Chain
The need for better design, production and test integration had been discussed in the semiconductor industry for over 10 years. The concept had been repeated so many times, in so many contexts, that it’s taken on the feel of a shallow aphorism, like the saying “power tends to corrupt” or “he who laughs last, laughs best”
But the need for better supply chain integration has finally emerged as a real necessity with meaningful and specific attributes.
To meet consumers need for cramming more functionality into smaller, cheaper cell phones and multimedia devices, chip designers need an integrated design solution that lets them optimize interdie and die-to-substrate connectivity for signal performance and manufacturability. A key part of this process lies in co-design opportunities between the IC and package, the package and printed-circuit board or both-in order to satisfy tough performance, cost and size goals. Design for Manufacturing (DFM) has become an essential component in the production process and many see a future when DFM ceases to be independent step, but integrated directly into the design and verification process. New technologies such Through Silicon Vias (TSVs) also require an unprecedented integration between design, manufacturing and multi die packaging.
The fact is there is no forum today that brings together chip designers, wafer processing engineers, packaging specialists, and test plan developers under one roof to talk about the growing set of interdependencies and co-design needs.
We are trying to do that at SEMICON West.
Because Silicon Valley is the home of so many fabless semiconductor firms, consumer product companies like Apple and HP and Cisco, and leading IDMs like Intel, SEMICON West is the natural center of the emerging collaborative development model. SEMICON West already is one of the largest EDA expositions in the world with over 3000 attendees interested in design automation (including hundreds of CTOs) and exhibitors such as Synopsis, Magma and Cadence. And, most of the large US mobile and consumer products companies attend West, as well as every major IDM and fabless semiconductor company in the world.
The next step is to develop programs and forums to encourage and nurture collaboration and that is what we’ve done, especially this year. Some of the programs that leveraging this need for design-production-packaging-test collaboration include:
- IDMs, OSATs, EDA suppliers, packaging equipment firms, and wafer processing companies will meet in comprehensive Packaging Sumitt to discuss the product, market and supply chain implications of 3D TSVs
- High Density Packaging will dominate the TAP TechXPOT on Tuesday, July 15 from 3:00pm–5:00pm.
- The increasing complexity of microelectronic devices is bringing about new thinking around semiconductor test. The new methodologies and ideas around test that will require industry collaboration and cooperation will be discussed on both Tuesday and Wednesday.
- The synergy between anew materials and new processes for 32 and 22 nm manufacturing will highlight the Wafer Processing TechXPOT.
- The linkage between lower power design and DFM will be addressed on the Thursday keynote by Jim Miller of Cadence.
- DFM and the increasing complexity of “manufacturing sign-off” will be address throughout Thursday.
- Standards committee meetings—where collaboration takes place at the highest, most substantive level—will be held throughout SEMICON
If you have any ideas on how we can do better—at SEMICON West or any other SEMI program-- in bringing the increasingly interdependent elements of the supply chain together, please let me know.
Tuesday, May 27, 2008
Traffic Flow, Leads and Booth Location at SEMICON West
One of the most prominent goals for exhibitors at SEMICON West events is lead generation and one of the top concerns is booth location. Many exhibitors believe that leads are directly related to booth location, in fact, many firmly believe that location is the most important factor in lead generation.
This isn’t true and we have the data to prove it. Here is the lead distribution and booth visit appointments scheduled through BD Metrics for SEMICON West 2006 by Hall:
Percent of Average
North Hall= 99%
South Hall= 113%
West 1 = 99%
West 2 = 84%
While you might think from this data that South Hall is significantly better and West Hall Level 2 is significantly worse for leads, additional scrutiny reveals this not to be the case. If we remove the top lead generating exhibitor from South Hall, the difference between North and West Level 1 virtually disappears. West Hall numbers can be explained by the population of many smaller start-ups in the New and Emerging Technology area on Level 2 that year. On closer inspection, 8 of the top 12 most visited booths in West Hall were on Level 2. Looking at the distribution of booth visits across all the 4 top halls, we see the most visited booths randomly distributed between the halls, and within halls (front and back of hall are nearly the same).
What we know is that leads are primarily a function of exhibitor marketing. Companies that conduct pre-show mailings, have interesting displays, promotions, and well trained booth staffs generate more leads. Many of the top lead generating firms have special lead generation programs, such as product demonstrations or promotions. These firms can take their booth marketing program anywhere in Moscone and perform equally well in lead generation.
If you want to be successful in generating leads, you have to create a program that will interest your target market, compel them to your booth, and incent them to give you their badge for a swipe. Both location has very little to do with it.
This isn’t true and we have the data to prove it. Here is the lead distribution and booth visit appointments scheduled through BD Metrics for SEMICON West 2006 by Hall:
Percent of Average
North Hall= 99%
South Hall= 113%
West 1 = 99%
West 2 = 84%
While you might think from this data that South Hall is significantly better and West Hall Level 2 is significantly worse for leads, additional scrutiny reveals this not to be the case. If we remove the top lead generating exhibitor from South Hall, the difference between North and West Level 1 virtually disappears. West Hall numbers can be explained by the population of many smaller start-ups in the New and Emerging Technology area on Level 2 that year. On closer inspection, 8 of the top 12 most visited booths in West Hall were on Level 2. Looking at the distribution of booth visits across all the 4 top halls, we see the most visited booths randomly distributed between the halls, and within halls (front and back of hall are nearly the same).
What we know is that leads are primarily a function of exhibitor marketing. Companies that conduct pre-show mailings, have interesting displays, promotions, and well trained booth staffs generate more leads. Many of the top lead generating firms have special lead generation programs, such as product demonstrations or promotions. These firms can take their booth marketing program anywhere in Moscone and perform equally well in lead generation.
If you want to be successful in generating leads, you have to create a program that will interest your target market, compel them to your booth, and incent them to give you their badge for a swipe. Both location has very little to do with it.
Saturday, May 17, 2008
Packaging Innovation At West
Scott Kulicke, chairman and CEO of Kulicke and Soffa, gave a provocative keynote at the recent SEMICON show in Singapore. He pointed out that that the semiconductor industry has undergone pervasive dis-integration to achieve today’s cost efficiencies through supply chain specialization. Through outsourcing of manufacturing, through outsourcing of design and process technology, and through outsourcing of assembly, packaging and test, the industry has achieved great efficiencies, but not without hidden costs. Today, every supplier intensively competes exclusively with companies at the same level in the supply chain, preventing the kind of innovations through vertical integration that are vital in this era of consumer-driven electronics.
Kulicke was lamenting the fact that the current industry structure prevents packaging equipment companies from working directly with the end customer. Without this interaction, he questioned whether meaningful innovation—the kind you can make a lot of money on—can be achieved.
It is exactly this kind of need that we are trying to address at SEMICON West. Silicon Valley is no longer the center of the most advanced, most productive fabs in the world—they have mostly moved to Asia. Yet, the region is by far the leading center in fabless chip design, venture funding, and home to some of the leading consumer electronics companies in the world, such as Apple and HP. It is also remains an R&D center to Intel, AMD and others and home to leading EDA companies. All these audiences immerse themselves in SEMICON West-related events, programs and meetings. In this multi-chip, package-on-package world, no other region can hope to bring the full supply chain--from design to production and test—including the leading fabless chip companies, the leading venture backers, and the leading OEMs together to explore, learn and take part in the collaborative creative process necessary to compete in the digital world.
At this year’s SEMICON West we have tried to organize events and programs precisely to foster this full supply chain interaction that Kulicke was referring to. On Monday, July 15 we have a organized a Packaging Summit that will bring together design, fabless, equipment, materials, OSATs and IDMs together to talk about Through Silicon Via or TSV technology. TSV may force intensive design-manufacturing-test integration at levels unprecedented in the history of the industry.
On Wednesday, we have tried to organize the entire day’s events around Mobile Electronics with keynotes and TechXPOTs programs devoted to the special needs of mobile electronics in wafer processing, packaging, test and design. These programs—together with exhibitors like Advantest, Synopsys, Cadence, K&S, ASM, and others—we have to overcome the kind of disintegrated, specialized supply chain we see today.
All the ingredients are in place—hopefully with a heat and a little stirring, sparks will fly.
Kulicke was lamenting the fact that the current industry structure prevents packaging equipment companies from working directly with the end customer. Without this interaction, he questioned whether meaningful innovation—the kind you can make a lot of money on—can be achieved.
It is exactly this kind of need that we are trying to address at SEMICON West. Silicon Valley is no longer the center of the most advanced, most productive fabs in the world—they have mostly moved to Asia. Yet, the region is by far the leading center in fabless chip design, venture funding, and home to some of the leading consumer electronics companies in the world, such as Apple and HP. It is also remains an R&D center to Intel, AMD and others and home to leading EDA companies. All these audiences immerse themselves in SEMICON West-related events, programs and meetings. In this multi-chip, package-on-package world, no other region can hope to bring the full supply chain--from design to production and test—including the leading fabless chip companies, the leading venture backers, and the leading OEMs together to explore, learn and take part in the collaborative creative process necessary to compete in the digital world.
At this year’s SEMICON West we have tried to organize events and programs precisely to foster this full supply chain interaction that Kulicke was referring to. On Monday, July 15 we have a organized a Packaging Summit that will bring together design, fabless, equipment, materials, OSATs and IDMs together to talk about Through Silicon Via or TSV technology. TSV may force intensive design-manufacturing-test integration at levels unprecedented in the history of the industry.
On Wednesday, we have tried to organize the entire day’s events around Mobile Electronics with keynotes and TechXPOTs programs devoted to the special needs of mobile electronics in wafer processing, packaging, test and design. These programs—together with exhibitors like Advantest, Synopsys, Cadence, K&S, ASM, and others—we have to overcome the kind of disintegrated, specialized supply chain we see today.
All the ingredients are in place—hopefully with a heat and a little stirring, sparks will fly.
Sunday, May 11, 2008
The IC Industry Has Matured, So What
Good commentary by Patrick Mannion--The IC Industry Has Matured, So What? --in this week's EETimes.
The whining in this industry is really getting out of hand. Consolidation, Slow Growth, Maturation, Whither Europe, Whither US...Boo Hoo.
Does every panel at a conference--or news report-- have to be about the consensus industry forecast? Just how many people's jobs, careers or portfolios are based broad industry metrics. Any engineers out there? How about sales and marketing people use this information to plan their day, week, career? Doesn't anyone care about new applications, new technologies, hot start ups, the little battles that mark the yearly swings in market share?
In its place, forecasts and speculation on industry structure are certainly appropriate, but it seems to replacing discussions about technology and applications, the stuff most people care about, are interested in, and need to be on top of. Just how many market analysts and corporate strategists who live and die speculating on industry structure are there out there?
Of course, SEMI is as guilty as anyone in the industry for creating forums that might gravitate to doom and gloom prognosticating. Like I said, it has its place. But what's going on in Automative, Medical, Power, Mobile and is really exciting. What's happening in IC packaging and high k, metal gate is essential stuff for thousands of engineers. That's where the action is--applications, technology, products.
Talk about industry structure and our collective financial prospects is like complaining about the weather. We all succumb to it sometimes, but there's little we can do it about so give it a rest.
Wednesday, May 07, 2008
Innovation At Work in Singapore
“Technology Diffusion” is one of those intellectual concepts that you don’t expect to see taking place right before your eyes, but that’s what I witnessed at SEMICON Singapore.
The theory of Diffusion of Innovations is what every young marketer learns and its a useful guide to establishing marketing strategy. The theory is about how innovations spread through society in an S curve, as the early adopters and innovators select the technology first, followed by the early majority and late majority, and eventually laggards. The theory states that innovation diffusion is a process that occurs over time through five stages: Knowledge, Persuasion, Decision, Implementation and Confirmation. There’s a lot been written about it.
At the show this week, I kicked off the Advanced Packaging seminars at the Semiconductor Technology Symposium with a few clunky words and hung around to hear the opening keynotes and presentations on copper wire bonding. With the skyrocketing price of gold, copper wire bonding has been become a hot topic. While copper wire has been used for awhile on simpler devices, it hasn’t been widely deployed high volume chips because, well, it’s hard to do. The presentations discussed the latest research on copper wire bonding, showing the challenges, the costs, the process techniques, the new test methodologies needed. Very detailed.
The room was full—200 people—packaging engineers from every major OSAT in the region. You could hear a pin drop during the presentations. Every key detail was noted by the audience (their heads would drop simultaneously as they all took notes on the same point). As the morning sessions ended, I left for the exhibit floor, as did everyone else, single file down the escalators and through security. The crowd—over a hundred engineers—streamed directly into the K&S, Shinkawa and ASM booths (the top wire bonders) at the front of the hall. You know they were all talking copper.
In about 6 months, watch for all the new copper bonded products to start coming out.
Thursday, May 01, 2008
Nanotechnology Futures
This video was played at our recent Strategic Business Conference in Napa Valley and you won't see a better a vision of the possibilities and opportunities emerging in nanotechnology.
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