Heard in the Chanel: ECIA announces speaker line-up for Fall Executive Conference

Top managers from the electronics supply chain will meet next month for the annual executive conference of the Electronic Components Industry Association, to be held at the Intercontinental Chicago O’Hare Hotel October 27-29. Adam Hartung, managing partner of consulting firm Spark Partners, will open the event with a presentation on “how historical best practices can create obstacles to future success, and how to take the actions which will make you a vital organization well into the future.”

The conference will also feature speakers from Intel and Cisco, along with distribution industry leaders Steve Fisher, CEO of PEI Genesis, and Ed Smith, president of Avnet Electronics Marketing Americas.

Sponsors of this year’s event include the industry’s key media companies as well as Allied Electronics; Carlton-Bates Company; Cornell Dubilier; Digi-Key Corp.; Empowering Systems; Honeywell; IHS; KEMET Electronics; Kruvand Associates; Littelfuse; Master Electronics; Molex; Mouser; Murata; Newark element 14; netComponents; Norris and Associates; Sharp Microelectronics of the Americas; ON Semiconductor; Owner Resource Group; and TE Connectivity.

A highlight of the annual Executive Conference is the Electronics Choice Industry Awards (the ECIA’s), sponsored this year by ECIA and media company Penton and its Design Engineering & Sourcing Group. The awards recognize excellence in marketing by honoring ECIA members who have displayed exceptional branding and marketing programs in the past year. ECIA and Penton announced a call for nominations in August; entries can be submitted to ECIA online and must be received by September 13.

Entries will be reviewed by a panel of business-to-business marketing experts, and award winners will be announced during a special session at the conference on Monday, October 28, 2013.

In other industry news:

Arrow Electronics hosted the Mile High Electronics Recycling event in Denver in August, collecting more than 150,000 pounds of used electronics that the distributor will recycle through environmentally and socially responsible means.
Avnet Electronics Marketing Americas released a new Wi-Go Module, Videos and SpeedWay Seminar Series designed to support the wireless accessory module for the Freescale Freedom development platform, the FRDM-KL25Z.
Avnet Embedded entered into a distribution agreement with TechNexion, a leading provider of cutting-edge embedded modular solutions, to offer TechNexion’s low-cost, high-value embedded System-on-Modules and systems to its original equipment manufacturer (OEM) customer base.
Avnet’s Rorke Global Solutions and storage systems provider SageCloud announced a strategic relationship to jointly bring to market new, petabyte-scale storage solutions for cold data. Rorke Global Solutions will deliver these storage system solutions, which integrate SageCloud’s powerful system software with open standards-based hardware and complimentary support services to custom-tailor solutions for specific data center environments.
Magnetic components supplier Coilcraft expanded its online simulation model offering with an updated ADS component library, which includes models of its RF and Spring inductors and integrates with Agilent's Advanced Design System (ADS), helping engineers accurately simulate the performance of Coilcraft inductors in their circuit designs.
Switch, connector and custom components manufacturer CW Industries announced the release of a new backlit 16 position Rotary Encoder with a 4-channel hex output for military and commercial channel select applications.
Epec Engineered Technologies, which makes custom build-to-print electronics for all sectors of the electronics industry, expanded its sales coverage in Northern California with the addition of Arnold Serna, regional sales manager.
Signal integrity products maker Laird Technology announced the launch of a new TYS Series of power inductors used for voltage conversion applications such as DC-to-DC power converters.