EMC Symposium in Hawaii looks sparsely populated

This year’s IEEE EMC Symposium in Honolulu looks sparely populated, despite the fact that the IEEE EMC Society claimed that this year’s symposium had a recond number of papers and registrations. I certainly believe that the former claim is correct, but not the latter. In "Pineapples and EMC papers," I questioned if anyone would go to Hawaii to hear the technical presentations. Having attended several techical sessions and walked the show floor today, I saw lots of empty space. I suspect that some attendees were forbidden from attending from the start and that others lost their permissions in the weeks leading up to the symposium. That happened to one exhibitor who was told last week that he was staying home.

At one technical session, I was pressured into staying to hear a 5:00 paper on EMI in electric substations because there were so few people in the large room. I stayed and the attendance climbed froim 6 to 13. I’m used to seeing many more people at these sessions.

Next year, the IEEE EMC Symposium moves to Detroit. I have to assume that there will be fewer papers and more attendees in 2008.