LOUISVILLE, Colo. – June 11, 2013 ––The 50th Design Automation Conference (DAC), the premier conference devoted to electronic design, design automation, IP, embedded systems and software, was held in Austin, TX, June 2 – 6, 2013 for the first time in conference history. The attendance and local design community engagement exceeded the expectations of the DAC organizers and exhibitors, according to the 50th DAC Executive Committee.
“Austin has certainly confirmed its reputation as the fastest growing technology city. With a very significant increase in Texas-based companies attending DAC, several keynotes and technical sessions were packed to maximum capacity,” said Yervant Zorian, general chair of the 50th DAC. “The Austin electronics community gave DAC a warm welcome with many first time attendees to the conference. Austin City Mayor Lee Leffingwell stopped by on Monday afternoon to give a special welcome and launch DAC’s Global Forum Exhibit.”
Preliminary attendance figures for the 50th DAC break down as follows:
- Full conference passes – 1589
- Exhibits-only passes – 2364
- Exhibitors booth staff – 1998
Although registration numbers for DAC 2013 fell shy of those for DAC 2012 in San Francisco, this year’s conference was marked by an increase in technical session attendance. The opening keynote on Monday totaled 950 in attendance. The combined keynote attendance for Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday was 2,550, up 37% from 2012.
The average technical session attendance for Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, including the Designer Track was 5,005, up 8% from 2012. In addition, the number of exhibits-only passes surpassed the San Diego numbers from 2011 by more than 15%. Austin has certainly established itself as an electronics design hub.
“DAC in Austin was both productive and enjoyable,” said Rob van Blommestein, director of corporate communications at Jasper. “Not only were we pleased to be able to reach a number of engineers and engineering managers who don’t normally attend DAC, but also the traffic on the floor held steady during the week.”
Networking opportunities were one of the highlights at the 50th DAC, with a well-attended kick off reception on Sunday night, a jam-packed musical evening at Austin City Limits on Monday, daily receptions at the Austin Convention Center. The DAC Anniversary Banquet on Wednesday evening was sold out before the conference started. The banquet gave recognition to the volunteers and contributors that have made DAC successful for the past 50 years.
“Austin was positive for us. Not only did we see a lot of working engineers who don’t usually make it to the conference when it’s held in California, we were also surprised at the number and quality of attendees who did come from Silicon Valley,” said John Zuk, vice president of marketing and business strategy at Tanner EDA.
About DAC
The Design Automation Conference (DAC) is recognized as the premier event for the design of electronic circuits and systems, and for electronic design automation (EDA) and silicon solutions. A diverse worldwide community representing more than 1,000 organizations attends each year, represented by system designers and architects, logic and circuit designers, validation engineers, CAD managers, senior managers and executives to researchers and academicians from leading universities. Close to 60 technical sessions selected by a committee of electronic design experts offer information on recent developments and trends, management practices and new products, methodologies and technologies. A highlight of DAC is its exhibition and suite area with approximately 200 of the leading and emerging EDA, silicon, intellectual property (IP) and design services providers. The conference is sponsored by the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM), the Electronic Design Automation Consortium (EDA Consortium), and the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), and is supported by ACM’s Special Interest Group on Design.
