The COVID-19 pandemic has had far-reaching effects in almost every industry. For EMS, one of the areas most significantly impacted has been the trade show lineup. Several annual conferences have been canceled and even more have moved to an online venue. Enter CalcuQuote, an EMS industry-focused provider of quoting and purchasing software. The digitalization of the traditional EMS trade show is perfectly aligned with CalcuQuote’s mission to move EMS forward. As such, CalcuQuote is debuting its first virtual conference for EMS on Wednesday, Oct. 28: accelerateEMS (https://accelerateems.calcuquote.com/).
“Our motivation for hosting accelerateEMS is two-fold,” said Chintan Sutaria, President and Founder of CalcuQuote. “One, since the CalcuQuote team has operated in an online environment from the beginning, we felt we were the right people to take on the challenge of creating an interactive, virtual conference experience. Secondly, we recognized an opportunity to provide a targeted event just for EMS professionals, in addition to larger conferences intended for a broader audience.”
The free, one-day event will provide several chances for EMS professionals to network, learn about the challenges and opportunities facing the industry from a variety of expert speakers and panelists, and explore the future of EMS. Kicking off at 8:30 a.m. CDT, accelerateEMS will conclude with a virtual happy hour that starts at 4 p.m. CDT.
The event’s keynote presentation will cover the process of bringing a product to market and feature the founder of Robokind (https://www.robokind.com/), who’s facially expressive robots can be found helping students with Social & Emotional Learning and Computer Science in schools across the world. Other agenda highlights include a presentation on increasing shop floor productivity with industrial IoT and AI, a panel about ways to improve the quoting process, a discussion about M&A in EMS, a panel on security protocol for CMMC and ITAR compliance and a presentation on the digitalization of the EMS supply chain.
“We wanted to center the event around the core focus areas for EMS professionals today and bring to the stage really valuable insights from various experts in the space,” said Sutaria. “The goal is to offer something for everyone, whether you’re a purchasing manager, executive, sales team member or a business owner that wears many hats.”
In addition to the educational content on the main stage, attendees can visit the virtual exhibition area to connect with CalcuQuote partners, including Arrow Electronics, Cetec ERP, Digi-Key Electronics, Elisa Smart Factory, Heilind Electronics, Octopart, Rochester Electronics, Sourcengine, TTI, Inc., and Venkel LTD.
Like the name of the event itself suggests, accelerateEMS’ activities and speakers are unified by CalcuQuote’s driving purpose, to advance the EMS industry and encourage innovation. EMS professionals interested in registering for the conference can do so at: https://hopin.to/events/accelerateems.