It\u2019s said it\u2019s always darkest before the dawn.\u00a0 With continued high unemployment, escalating national debt, and soaring trade deficits with China, the economic news seems pretty dark.\u00a0 Two events occurred last week that are like a bright dawn coming after a dark night.<\/p>\n
The first was the Design-2-Part Show<\/a> held October 20-21 in Long Beach, California.\u00a0 This show features design and contract manufacturers located in the United States.\u00a0 While some of these companies may also have a plant offshore, no offshore-only companies are allowed to exhibit in the show.\u00a0 The mission of The Job Shop Company that owns and puts on the dozen different Design2Part shows around the country is to support and feature American companies.<\/em><\/p>\n This year\u2019s show was exciting!\u00a0 It was the most well attended show since the fall of 2007, before the recession started.\u00a0 Show management said it was one of the best southern California shows in the history of the company, with attendance up 21 percent over last year\u2019s show in Pasadena and up10 percent over the 2008 show in Pomona.\u00a0 In fact, it was so well attended that many exhibitors had trouble talking to all of the attendees that were visiting their booths.\u00a0\u00a0 The attendees weren\u2019t just browsing, as many exhibitors had far more leads from this show than the two previous shows.<\/p>\n The demise of shows such as the Design-2-Part show was expected because of the Internet.\u00a0 But there\u2019s no substitute for the face-to-face interaction provided by trade shows.\u00a0 At the Design2Part shows, engineers get to see and touch actual parts built by the exhibitors.\u00a0 This gives them ideas to use for new products they are designing and shows them how other people have solved problems they may be encountering in their design phase.<\/p>\n What made it even more exciting this year was the number of attendees that came to the show looking for domestic sources for parts for new products or looking for a domestic source to replace an offshore vendor for parts for existing products, with some even bringing prints to quote.\u00a0 We heard several stories about quality problems with offshore vendors that are making it no longer advantageous to source the parts offshore.\u00a0 One company mentioned that because parts coming from China didn\u2019t meet dimensional specifications, they had to rework the parts and modify assembly steps at their own cost.\u00a0 When they contacted the Chinese vendor to return the parts, the Chinese vendors said, \u201cWe\u2019ll be happy to accept a new order for the parts,\u201d but wouldn\u2019t give credit for the defective parts from the previous order.<\/p>\n Other factors mentioned in the decision to rethink sourcing offshore in China were the increases in wages as a result of the suicides and strikes during the summer, as well as increases in shipping costs.<\/p>\n The other event was the 17th<\/sup> Annual TechAmerica<\/a> (formerly AeA) High Tech Awards that were presented at a luncheon attended by over 600 people in San Diego on October 22nd<\/sup>.\u00a0 This event highlighted the creativeness and ingenuity of American companies, which is one of our greatest strengths in competing globally.\u00a0\u00a0 There were ten categories of awards this year with the addition of contract services for the first time.\u00a0 Out of many dozens of applications, three to five finalists were selected for each category. The award winners in each category were:<\/p>\n Software<\/strong>:\u00a0 Anakam Inc.<\/a><\/strong> provides integrated no-touch risk-based identity verification and multi-factor authentication solutions for government, healthcare, and commercial organizations.\u00a0 Anakam was just acquired by Equifax Inc. earlier this month.<\/p>\n Internet\/Web Commerce<\/strong>:\u00a0 Anonymizer<\/a><\/strong> provides a proprietary set of solutions for the corporate online privacy sector.<\/p>\n Contract Services:\u00a0 D&K Engineering<\/a><\/strong> provides full turnkey development and manufacturing services, as well as focused projects to address a specific client need anywhere along the product life cycle.<\/p>\n Computers & Related Products:\u00a0 Z Microsystems<\/a><\/strong> provides field-ready computing technologies, focused on government and DoD, including a full range of deployable data storage systems.<\/p>\n Defense\/IT Solutions: <\/strong>DefenseWeb Technologie<\/strong>s<\/a> helps government organizations address complex automation and information technology challenges through innovative software development.\u00a0 DefenseWeb became a wholly owned subsidiary of Humana Inc.<\/p>\n Semiconductors, Industrial & Analytical Instrumentation:\u00a0 Quantum Design<\/a><\/strong> provides automated temperature and magnetic field testing platforms for materials characterization.<\/p>\n Communications Products & Services:\u00a0 Entropic Communications<\/a> <\/strong>is a leading fabless semiconductor company that designs, develops, and markets system solutions to enable connected home entertainment.<\/p>\n Medical Device Technology\/Instrumentation:\u00a0 GenMark Diagnostics, Inc.<\/a> <\/strong>provides the eSensor\u00ae XT-8 to perform multiplexed molecular diagnostics utilizing a micro fluidic system to accelerate target binding and improve time to result.<\/p>\n