The 18th of April 1930 (Good Friday, as it happened) is a day that will forever live in infamy at the BBC. The evening news bulletin on BBC Radio that day was short, succinct and typically Anglo-centric: “Good evening. Today is Good Friday. There is no news,” said the announcer, while the remainder of the broadcast was dedicated to easing the shock of its listeners with soothing piano music.
The 24th of June 2016, and the days following, were not like that at all. That was the day it was announced that the majority of UK citizens (51,9%) had voted to leave the European Union – a decision colloquially referred to as Brexit. The fallout from the referendum was arguably even more shocking than the result itself: Prime Minister David Cameron announced his resignation on the same day, leaving the Conservative Party to find a new leader. The main opposition – the Labour Party – meanwhile commenced an internecine war between supporters of its leader, Jeremy Corbyn, and those who would see him replaced with someone more ruthless to hammer home the wedge splitting the rival conservatives.
The battle of words spilled over into England’s streets as well, accompanied by some violence, with a spate of xenophobic attacks aimed mostly at Muslims and Eastern Europeans. And now it seems many people who voted for Brexit are experiencing buyer’s remorse, as polls are suggesting as many as 1,2 million voters (7%) in the ‘leave’ camp now regret their choice. Oops.
Even the countries that make up the ‘United’ Kingdom were at odds, with England and Wales voting to leave, and Scotland and Northern Ireland voting to remain in the EU. There are suggestions that Scotland may now leave the UK, and talk of other EU countries following the UK’s example in splitting with the EU.
A continent divided, a nation divided, politics divided and people divided. On the bright side, perhaps other countries will be able to use the evolving situation as an opportunity to forge new trade deals for their goods and services with European countries on both sides of the Brexit débâcle.
Speaking of goods and services, the electronics engineering industry held its annual event (under the new guise of the SAEI Expo) at the Kyalami Exhibition and Conference Centre on the 22nd and 23rd of June. For an objective review of the event (with photos), stop reading now and see 'Electronics expo completes first lap of Kyalami'. What follows here are strictly my own biased thoughts and opinions.
Without boring you with the details or airing any dirty laundry, this year marked something of a sea change in said exhibition – another split of sorts. Partly due to politics and partly for financial reasons, the National Electronics Week (NEW) expo that has been held every year since 2010 ran separately from the June show organised by AREI (the Association of Representatives for the Electronics Industry). The upshot of all this was that NEW was almost exclusively manufacturing-centric, while SAEI attracted the lion’s share of component distributors, test equipment suppliers, service providers and others.
At all of these shows, part of my routine entails walking around and chatting with the exhibitors. Not only does this give me an opportunity to catch up on the latest gossip, it also gives me a chance to ask them what their overall impressions are of the show. Inevitably, reactions are always mixed, which is understandable given that different stands will be visited by different attendees, and each company will have its own yardstick to measure what constitutes a successful exhibition.
Overall, I can honestly say their responses were mostly positive, which concurs with my personal impression that there was an overall positive vibe around the show floor. Other than the most noteworthy aspersion by one exhibitor (who shall remain anonymous) of “it sucks,” which was later modified to “it slightly sucks,” most people felt the event was worthwhile, and opinions on the venue were equally positive for the most part.
Attendance figures are always the first thing exhibitors look at when evaluating an event, and at just shy of 500 visitors, many would have liked more. Having debated the reasons for this with several people leads me to wonder how much this was influenced by the manufacturing crowd being absent from the exhibitors roll. Or perhaps people just don’t go to exhibitions as much as they used to, in these days of instant access to information. More worryingly, it might be a sign of just how much the sector has contracted, and how few electronics engineers are still around.
Brett van den Bosch
Editor
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