- SAN JOSE, CA--The FlexTech Alliance (formerly the U.S. Display Consortium or USDC)—the only organization headquartered in North America devoted to developing the electronic display and the flexible, printed electronics supply chain—today announced that registration is open for its new Business and Investment Summit and Short Course Series. These events will run concurrently on Monday, February 2, 2009, kicking off the 8th Annual Flexible Electronics & Displays Conference. The Flex Conference, held at the Pointe Hilton Squaw Peak Resort in Phoenix, Ariz., sets an unprecedented standard for the most comprehensive, informative event for this emerging global industry.
- Connecting the key stakeholders in the flexible electronics & displays industry is a critical goal and driver behind FlexTech Alliance’s 2009 conference. The new Business and Investment Summit is designed to foster relationships and better understanding of the drivers that will enable this up-and-coming industry’s ultimate success. It will focus on those players who not only fund product development and investment in new technologies, but also on how to best bring those players together to facilitate collaboration and accelerated innovations in R&D where needed. “The photovoltaic industry is growing at a phenomenal rate—the established manufacturers are expanding their production capacity, and many new players are also coming to the market. Innovation will play a key role in maintaining and accelerating the growth,” remarked Subhendu Guha, chairman of United Solar Ovonic, the world's largest manufacturer of flexible solar panels. “The success of the industry will depend critically on technologists and operations experts working together to drive down the cost further,” he added.
- Unmatched for depth and diversity, this year’s four-day conference boasts six short course topics covering a broad range of applications—printing technologies, flexible and printed electronics, flexible OLEDs, solar and photovoltaic applications, RFIDs and sensor technology—going well beyond just teaching the basics. Courses will be taught by experts from their respective fields, with several collaborations between academia and industry. There will also be hands-on demonstrations highlighting actual applications and end-use products.
- “If history has taught us anything, the breakthrough technologies and use cases represented in the Short Course Series are staged to change business as we know it,” noted Mark McDonald, director of field engineering, professional services and advanced R&D at Alien Technology. “Today’s flexible electronics can be compared to the first personal computers, which were nothing more than a terminal and software designed to replace the word processor. The real benefit of the PC, however, was only realized when people began applying it in innovative ways and for innovative purposes—notebook computing, emails, B2B transactions, etc. The same is true for flexible electronics, and in Alien’s case, RFID. The real benefit occurs when people apply the technology for more than a bar code replacement.”
- To register for the Business and Investment Summit, the Short Course Series, or the conference itself, please visit www.flexconference.org .
