The EMPS Conference opened in Slovenia with a plenary session given by Phillip Gaucher on “functional materials in electronic devices”.

This was followed by an interesting overview by Franc Dolenc from Iskratel on the convergence of fixed telecoms, mobile technology and broadcasting. Mr Dolenc highlighted the many challenges facing the telecoms industry, not least of which is the new cost models offered by companies such as Skype and Google, which asked the question, who was going to pay for future development.

Jim Drehle, international President of IMAPS in the USA ended the plenary session with a historical and current view of IMAPS and the challenges it faces with the relocation of manufacturing, reduced time to market and shorter product and technology lifecycles.

The session was well-attended with a capacity audience.

IMAPS also announced the official launch of the European IMAPS website. The site will act as a focal point for the 13 Chapters that comprise IMAPS Europe. Each Chapter can add news of events and chapter activities in their local language. A full member database for use by members only will be added over the coming weeks. www.imapseurope.com