McKenzie Ross, Vice President of Marketing

Earlier this month, for the third year in a row, I had the privilege of joining my colleagues from around the world to represent SmartDV at Embedded World Exhibition & Conference. It was an absolute pleasure—and in case you missed out on the fun, here are some of my impressions from the conference.

Embedded World At-a-Glance

Held annually at the NürnbergMesse in beautiful Nuremberg, Germany, Embedded World is the largest conference and trade show that SmartDV currently attends. It’s truly a massive show, and this year was the biggest event yet, with 1,140 exhibitors from nearly 50 countries. The scale of the exhibit halls is staggering: walking at a good pace, it can take about 10 minutes to wend your way from the venue entrance to the farther reaches of the halls!

SmartDV began exhibiting at Embedded World in 2022, in response to the increases we were seeing in our volume of business in EMEA. We have always placed our stand in the IC & IP Design Area of Hall 4, clustered among companies in a similar niche of the tech industry—and my goodness, there is quite a variety at this event! Embedded World welcomes companies in hardware, systems, distribution, application software, tools, services, electronic displays, embedded vision, M2M, safety, security, and more. The unifying factor is a true passion for technology and its ability to transform our world.

Smarties in Action

I was joined at the conference by two of my colleagues: Senior Staff Application Engineer Ettore Giliberti and Sales Account Director Dave Johnson. All visitors to our stand were in very good hands—these two are as friendly and proactive as they are knowledgeable about our IP. They’re pretty great company and fun to chat with, as well! Most members of the global sales, marketing, and AE teams at SmartDV work remotely, so it’s always a treat when we get to be in the same place for a few days. The Smarties work hard and play hard!

Connecting…

There are few things more satisfying at a trade show than when we’re able to answer someone’s questions and open the door to doing business together… but Embedded World found a way to surpass even that experience. We actually had an engineer stop by to ask if we have a certain IP that he was seeking for a project. We were delighted to tell him, “Yes, absolutely we have that!” and even more delighted when he had made introductions to his colleagues and purchasing team before the end of the day. (To be honest, I’ve never seen anything like it.)

I think it helped that our booth was comfortable and inviting, with space on our sofas to share with attendees eager to rest their tired feet while having a chat about design IP and VIP. The days can certainly be long when there’s so much to see and so much ground to cover, both metaphorically and literally!

Conferences and trade shows present a fantastic opportunity to see a ton of technology and innovation showcased all in one place, but I think there’s an equal value in their capacity to simply bring people together: to learn from one another, to inspire each other, and to connect on a human level.

… and Reconnecting

Speaking of connecting—or, as it were, reconnecting—Embedded World has become an annual opportunity for me to see not only my far-flung global colleagues, but also some dear family friends who used to be colleagues of my dad, when he was at National Semiconductor.

As a kid growing up in Silicon Valley, I was raised with the tech industry playing a big role in my family’s life. It’s entirely possible that I first thought about a career in this field while running amok at Kids to Work Day on National’s campus in Sunnyvale. Semiconductors have been in the background for my entire life, to the point that I sometimes feel as though I have “inherited” the industry as I’ve carved out my own place in it.

It’s a special experience to maintain connections across the industry and around the world—especially those that I’ve had since I was a child. I’m incredibly fortunate that the semiconductor industry has given me countless things to love about my career. The people I’ve met are right up there at the top of the list.

#women4ew

Embedded World presented me with a wonderful opportunity to connect with other women in the industry at the now-annual #women4ew reception Wednesday afternoon. Codasip’s Tora Fridholm and I attended together, and we enjoyed every moment! Tora and I bonded some years ago over our shared passion for marketing, and it’s so fun to have some days in the same place to hang out and “talk shop” together.

In addition to refreshments and mingling, there were a number of breakout sessions to choose from at the event. Tora and I selected “Transforming Power Through Feminist AI,” presented by Eva Gengler. Eva’s talk centered on the problematic fact that AI models are a reflection of society and all of human history—and are being trained on the biases of past generations. The unfortunate result of this is that these biases are magnified in AI’s output. When prompted to generate an image depicting a room full of powerful people, for example, AI will produce a picture of a room full of white, middle-aged men. Eva posits that in order to build a more equitable society, we must train AI with intention: it must be taught not to marginalize already-disadvantaged groups, such as women, the elderly, and minorities, else it will only serve to reinforce old systems of power and discrimination. It will take real effort to chart a more equitable course—but we can do it!

Cheers to Our Partner, Codasip!

Speaking of our friends at Codasip: they were presented with an Embedded Award in the Safety and Security category for the CHERI technology in their RISC-V processor cores. Tora Fridholm and her colleague, Brett Cline, accepted the award as we applauded their success—and they kindly invited SmartDV to join them for a celebratory dinner that evening.

Hearty congratulations to everyone at Codasip! As your peripheral IP partner, SmartDV knows firsthand the quality of your RISC-V offerings!

Moments and Memories

All in all, it was a fantastic week in Nuremberg, and I’m already looking forward to next year. I’ll close with glimpses of a few unexpected delights that have stuck with me in the days since.

Whether you’ve not yet had the opportunity to attend Embedded World or you’re a faithful annual attendee, I hope we’ll see you there in 2025!