Moving On, Making Progress
by Amal Ghosh President, Society for Information Display
By the time this issue of Information Display is published, many of us will be at Display Week 2016 in San Francisco, California. I look forward to Display Week each year for many reasons, but chief among them is that it is the single-best event you can attend to learn about what’s going on in our fast-paced rapidly changing display industry.
This year’s program includes the events we have come to look forward to – the world-renowned technical symposium, short courses, and seminars; the three-day exhibition; the Innovation Zone, now in its fifth year; and the Business, Investors, and Market Focus Conferences. Tuesday’s Market Focus Conference is based on touch technology; Wednesday’s will feature wearable-flexible technology. The organizers of Display Week are constantly updating the show’s content in order to focus on what is current, as well as what will be current a year or more from now. To this end, the committee has also designated six special focus topics as part of the technical program: augmented and virtual reality, digital-signage display solutions, lighting, TFTs and display circuits on plastic substrates, vehicle displays and user-interface technology trends, and wearable displays.
We are also featuring two new events this year: a Chief Marketing Officer Panel and the New Product Showcase. The CMO Panel, which takes place Wednesday morning, is a moderated discussion with industry leaders who will talk about sales and marketing issues related to displays, such as how to solve supply-chain issues. The New Product Showcase, which is part of the three-day exhibition, will feature many of the newest products in a designated area of the show floor. These are the products exhibitors want to highlight for the press and public. It is a great way to get a quick overview before walking the rest of the show floor.
And because it is important to have some fun, I urge you to attend one or both of our two most popular special events: the Awards Luncheon and the Special Networking Event, which both take place on Wednesday, May 25. The luncheon, which begins at noon, features the winners of the Display Industry Awards, the Best-in-Show Awards, and the I-Zone Best-Prototype Award. This year’s special event, sponsored by Merck, on Wednesday evening after show hours, will be at the California Academy of Sciences. This promises to be a great time for all.
Last, by the time you read this, I will have ended my two-year term as president of SID, and the Society will have a new president, Dr. Yong-Seog Kim. I hope you will join me in welcoming Dr. Kim. He has done outstanding work for SID for many years, and I have no doubt that our organization will prosper under his leadership and guidance.
I have enjoyed serving the SID membership as president these past 2 years. During this time, the Society has made significant progress in many areas. First, the financial health of the society improved considerably. We obtained a record surplus for 2015, due in part to the Display Week conference, which has seen a significant improvement in attendance and technical paper submissions. Second, we started a Display Training School (DTS) in China, which was very successful, with many participants and new memberships for the Society. Last, the society’s leadership team decided to streamline the governance structure in order to allow better representation of the chapters and more efficient operation. The corresponding bylaws change was approved by the board of directors and is on the ballot for approval from the general membership. These are very significant and important changes to the Society.
Volunteering for the Society has been one of the most satisfying activities of my career, and if you have not already volunteered in some capacity, I urge you to do so.
Enjoy Display Week and San Francisco! •