There are precious few occasions when the distribution folk gather with the supplier folk and the customer folk to discuss issues in an open forum, aside from the very obvious networking opportunities which present themselves at such events.
So it might be well worth your while popping over to Paris (ha, that got your attention) for the Europartners Distribution Forum. Theme for the conference is Investing in European Electronics? That question mark suggests some doubts about Europe's continuing allure as an electronics market compared, say, with the growth spurt countries of China and India. Some chats with senior distribution executives over the past few days suggest the question mark could be dropped by the end of the conference. East Europe, they are telling me, continues to grow apace with countries such as Poland maturing into a true electronics market with a mix of design and manufacturing by local OEMs, while latter entrants Romania and Bulgaria are in the inward investment phase.
Europartners have lined up some top speakers whose presentations should usher in lively debates.
Chris King, newly anointed president of Farnell Europe will speak alongside industry veteran and managing director of TTI Europe, Glyn Dennehy. Among supplier representatives is Thomas Staudinger, vice president; global channel management at NXP Semiconductors. Gilles Benhamou, Chief Executive Officer of Asteel Flash, the EMS company will be joined by Boris Roudiak, president of Compel, the largest distributor in Russia.
The conference runs alongside the Forum d'Electronique, the French electronics exhibition which encompasses components, RF, test and measurement and production. It runs from September 30 to October 1. More details at www.europartners.eu.com
Hi Ian,
Many apologies for the tardy response. And thanks for your comments. The Forum was cancelled. I'm seeing the Europartners people on Thursday so will ask what is the future for what was a well attended event.
And where I got Chris King from I don't know. Apologies to Andy, which I will convey personally when I meet him during the electronica exhibition.
Posted by: Mick Elliott | October 07, 2008 at 09:13 PM
I have just been told that the conference has been cancelled & will be rescheduled for 2009. You may like to verify this for yourselves
Posted by: Ian Woledge | September 16, 2008 at 01:14 PM
I think that you'll find it's Andy King (not Chris)from Farnell!
Posted by: Ian Woledge | September 10, 2008 at 03:29 PM