RE: Day of Discovery

DAB — Thu, 05 May 2011 21:13:23 GMT

When I would go to shows or conferences, I would just walk around and read over the big drawin postures and then step up to talk if I had a use for the tools or services the company provided. Sometimes you get lucky and they have a real knowledgable engineer at the event and you can get a really good read on the technology.

In the old days, I would pickup data sheets, but today I would just grab URL's or demo CD's. The real problem is finding time to review everything you saw and learned after you return to work and find that you were now a week behind.

As I gained experience, I learned to sit down each night and write up a short trip report summary. That way I at least had some good notes of things that got rewritten over my memory the next day. These events can be a total sensory overload after two or three days, but it usually pays to return every day to the booths, because sometimes you get lucky with different people tending the booth tha were not there the first couple of passes.

More often then not, I gained a lot of insight into current technology developments and some interesting ideas about different applications other than what was featured.

I really encourage engineers to attend these events, they usually leave you stimulated with ideas that you cannot wait to try once you get home.

Thanks,

DAB