Last week the local Atlanta SMTA chapter hosted their annual Expo. As part of the event, I was asked to chair a roundtable for area designers. Actually, we had four roundtables set up in a circle, so I’m claiming I chaired four roundtables simultaneously.
Being a bit nervous about these things, I was concerned that we wouldn’t have much of a turnout, so I was pleasantly surprised when 20 or so people showed up. Most of these were people either in design or design management. There was a sprinkling of EDA people, VARs and manufacturing folks present also, which I take as a sign of their desire to be involved with designers. Over the course of an hour or so, we talked about DFM, documentation and the fate of design in North America. I guess I’d forgotten just how much I enjoy being in this kind of setting – listening to designers talk about what keeps them awake at night and what we can do to preserve the US engineering and design capabilities.

We’ve agreed to meet again soon, and we’re setting up mechanisms for staying in closer touch. I’ll let ya know how it goes.