Internepcon UK, 1989

To ‘report’ on this year's Internepcon, 14–16 March, at the NEC, Birmingham, is going to prove more difficult than anticipated. The average journalist would report on such an event—whether as a eulogy or critique—from the standpoint of the visitor, having time to saunter up and down the aisles, amass briefcasefuls of press releases, sniff out the genuinely new products from those merely flaunting a ‘New’ label, interrogate the occasional exhibitor regarding impressions, etc. Well, I too had hoped to follow this format, anticipating the occasional lull in activity. However, as an exhibitor, I found little opportunity to ‘escape’ from the Circuit World stand—even on Wednesday when I had the assistance of a colleague to share ‘booth‐duty’ (pardon the Americanism). This surely speaks volumes for the increased success of this year's event. Numbers of visitors undoubtedly seemed to be higher than in recent years. Of course, we should compare like with like and check this year's attendance figures against the figures for the last combined Packaging and Production Show held in Brighton in 1985. Even that comparison is not entirely valid either, as this year saw for the first time the running of Semiconductor International concurrently with the combined Internepcon Show and under exactly the same roof in Hall 5.