A tale of two trade shows: can 75,000 people in one place be environmentally friendly?

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For a second time in recent months, nearly back-to-back trade shows, worlds apart, have provided visitors with the stark contrast of East and West.

CPCA was held this year at the Shanghai New International Expo Centre. This is the second year the event has been held here, and while the location is outside of city center, the facilities are excellent and transportation to and from hotels plentiful. Like 2007, the CPCA Show shared the massive fair grounds with allied electronics events, Electronica and ProductronicaChina and Semicon China. The reported attendance at these simultaneous events exceeded a staggering 75,000 during the week of the show.

What sets CPCA apart from other PCB exhibitions is the number of companies that come to show exclusively PCB-centric products. Unlike IPC Printed Circuits Expo/Apex, where the bulk of the exhibitors are assembly vendors, at CPCA over 500 PCB fabrication companies and PCB fabrication-specific suppliers are on display.

The exhibition covered 350,000 square feet this year, up 100,000 square feet over last year. Attendance for the three-day event reportedly topped 40,000. Exhibitors represented the global complexion the show has taken, coming from U.S, UK, Canada, France, Japan, Korea, Italy, Austria, Germany, Switzerland, Netherlands, Denmark, Hong Kong, Taiwan and China.

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This year the focus was on green manufacturing methods and equipment for water and air purification. Some 12% of the exhibits featured products for clean water, air and improved environmental conservation. Companies like Duraflow (duraflow.biz), in partnership with a local company, are bringing state-of-the-art environmental management solutions from water treatment to full water-recycling equipment into China, to meet the increasingly stringent wastewater treatment demands.

The theme of environmentally friendly processing permeated the event, and was a carryover from the 11th Electronics World Convention earlier in the week. Laminate and process chemical companies alike touted environmentally aware messages, from lead-free and halogen-free materials to semi-additive and fully additive fabrication processing.

As in previous years, the first hall was dominated by a handful of large suppliers. WKK, Mania, Hitachi, Schmoll and Schmid occupied over 1000 square meters of prime floor space. Equipment dominated, as is typical for these events. Over 44% of the booths featured equipment, ranging from drilling machine manufacturers like Timax Electronics & Machinery of Hong Kong, to laboratory measurement tools from the Fischer Asia-Pacific Group.

There was an increased number of local Chinese equipment manufacturers as well, supplying a variety of PCB fabrication tools for cleaning, plating, etching, scrubbing and even testing. Improving quality of construction and competitive cost from some local manufacturers has led to increased use of this equipment in the past 12 to 18 months.

Some global PCB suppliers were missing from CPCA this year. Rohm & Haas has attended Semicon China, versus making an appearance across the fairgrounds in the CPCA halls. Other chemical companies such as OM Group and Cookson/Enthone also did not exhibit at CPCA.

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In contrast to the large PCB fabrication-focused CPCA event, IPC Expo/Apex was dominated by assembly companies and assembly equipment. That said, the total floor coverage for the Las Vegas-based IPC event, including space occupied by EMS companies, was less than half the size of CPCA. More people attended the IPC exhibits than did last year, when the show was in Los Angeles, but the initial tally of exhibit attendees (3300) was less than 10% of the three-day CPCA crowds. (Official numbers for IPC Expo/Apex had not been released as of April 15, when we went to press.)

A number of products were introduced at the show, including products from Arlon; Automa-Tech ORC Imaging; Burkle North America; Circuit Technology Center; Fischer Technology; March Plasma Systems; Printar Ltd.; TrueLogic Co; World Mastery Technology; American Plating Power; Baker-MEI; C.A. Picard; Shanghai FAST-PCB Circuit; Sunstone Circuits; Excellon Automation; Taiwan Union Technology; UPA Technology; Allied High Tech Products; Count On Tools; and Unichem Industries. A full listing can be found at pcdandf.com/cms/IPCExpo2008.

While most assembly suppliers found the traffic good, many fabrication vendors voiced concerns about the lack of attendees in their areas from early afternoon on Wednesday through the close of the show on Thursday. A number of global materials suppliers agreed that IPC Expo has become a regional event, so the moderate traffic levels did not come as much of a surprise.

The attendees, citing the conference and exhibition in Las Vegas said it is a "love it or hate it" affair. We spoke with as many fans as detractors. Regardless of their position, everyone found the distance between hotels and the conference center trying, the lines for cabs excessive, check-in and dining untenable and the less-than-business-like atmosphere problematic more than once during their stay.

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There were engineers and researchers who have avoided attending the conferences over the past few years, as Anaheim wore thin and Los Angeles failed to entice. A number of them made their way to Las Vegas this year because they could, and they called it "an interesting place to visit." I met a number of spouses for the first time and reacquainted myself with old friends who had not been to an IPC conference in over three years. Most said they would probably not be back next year.

We were told that a number of exhibitors captured new sales on the show floor, and others have a few new leads to point to for the time and investment spent. Most of us had an opportunity to network but even this was hampered by the location, this distance between hotels and the hall and the general distractions associated with Sin City.

From a personal perspective, I like my business in a suit and prefer to have my fun without endless lines and disorganized crowds of people, so Vegas is not my cup of tea. After four days of extended waiting for everything from baggage claim to check-in to cabs to registration at the event to the never-quick lunches, I was ready to head home. A longtime colleague mused on Thursday as we headed to catch a cab to the airport, I feel like I spent the week in an 'E ticket' line and I'm still waiting for the fantastic ride." We didn't find one in Vegas. Perhaps you did.

KATHY NARGI-TOTH is editor of PCD&F.