Globalink

RE-invention – hard but no way around it

Sometimes it takes a combination of time and reconnection with old friends and colleagues to see the past clearly.

I recently reconnected with PR agency veteran Barbara Kohn, who worked for years with Brodeur Worldwide. We chatted on the phone about our love for cats and our mutual history of technology PR in Silicon Valley.

After we talked for a while, Barbara decided to write the Globalpress Connection story. Reading it, I learned more than I even knew about how I re-invented my business a few times over in the last 20+ years. She points out that many of our peers are no longer around, going out of business in one bust or another. Others are hugely wealthy because they sold out to multi-national agencies, or they exited the business because they were sick of pitching and chasing the media. Still others just left because they found other passions.

Maybe I have found my life-long passion in this global PR business, trusting myself enough to adapt and re-adapt with changing conditions. But as I get older I too dream about finding someone to lead Globalpress with me into the next re-invention phase. I think the next wave is just around the corner – multimedia, social media, online TV or whatever it might be.

How have you re-invented your work and life over the years? What new patterns and perspectives have you noticed as you view your past career from the perspective of the present? And for those of you associated with the technology world, what do you think the next waves will be in our industry? I would very much welcome your comments.

Chinese Editor goes the extra mile...

Not only has the recent Asian press delegation from China, Korea, Taiwan produced unusual high numbers of eeditorial already, one of the editors writing for 21ic, Ms. Karen Cui, went the extra mile and put together a landing page featuring the company C-level executives fromBerkely Design Automation, Vitesse Semiconductor, IDT, Fairchild, Gartner, Mentor Graphics,  

We will feature other special editions as well.

Have I forgotten myself... I am baaack!

With utter shock did I discover that I haven't written to my blog followers. Why not - because I thought it is enough to enter interesting things into Facebook and Linkedin which will beTwittered automatically.

Not sure if you follow us/me but the last 6 weeks were crazy: the unspeakable vulcano in Island stranded some European editos scheduled for the Summit in Santa Cruz, tizzy of rebooking, waiting, anxiety. All went well and tech gurus met the press from Europe, Asia and the US. Highlight was a discussion on the future of MEMS and the San Francisco TV Station KTVU Channel 2 rolled into our event to interview several editors and myself on the dilemma of print media. What a appropriate subject. We are all a little scare about our future, I guess. BUT the next Summit is scheduled for March 28 - 31, 2011.If you read this you are a true Globalpress fan and are the first know the new date. We'll announce shortly in a more strategic way.

I will keep this blog up again - FB here or there, Linkedin everywhere - to tell you what's going on here at Globalpress.

The China Crisis …. SARS was a blip

There is a crisis lingering in the world again! What else is new you might ask. China and the US seem to be in a real stand-off.  After years of issues with Europe where the US tried to oppress standards and regulations in its favor there are now new conflicts arising on the other side of the world. China seems to clamp down in many areas:  American families adopted healthy children for years, China needs now healthy children for their own growth and makes  only special needs children available for adoption, environmental differences, human right, internet freedom, technology  – you name it. China owns so much of the US values, it is scary.

And yet, my Rotary Club has a Shin-Shin Foundation where we raise money for rural schools and their libraries.  At a club meeting today we had a speaker from the Xi’an province telling us how historic and prosperous that area was/is, which gazillion treasured buried under two tombs. Maybe digging up for the poor people supporting the Rotary initiatives would be good.

On the technology front and for us at Globalpress it gets tricky.

That’s where our small agency fits in? Well over 15 years we have helped US companies do business in China, hundreds of Chinese editors came to our events, learned, made friends and wrote their reports. The largest delegation is attending our 8^th electronics press event April 26 – 29 in Santa Cruz and we can only hope that the information shared by our clients will not be censored for “product correctness”.  I thought 2003 the  SARS was the worst crisis we could have– it lingered but went away after a few months but now I am really concerned that these many political issues will hurt us all for much longer than SARS.

Hope our governments come to its senses so we can all continue to do exciting business and nurture our East-West friendships.

Something’s happening in EDA, and this time it’s good!

Participation by executives from EDA companies at the upcoming Globalpress Summit is already up to 4 vendors.

That’s a 100% increase over last year, when we had only 2 announcements by Mentor Graphics and Tanner EDA. These great companies will return this year to be joined by  Apache Design Solutions, EVE and several other vendors in the EDA space who are still looking at the opportunity to meet the global media in Santa Cruz April 26 – 29. Gabe Moretti of GABEonEDA heard that our event is the place to go for industry news.

Why the increase in participation from leading companies in the EDA industry? This once-a-year gathering is the perfect platform to launch products, introduce new management or set the stage for young companies on Emerging Day.

John Blyler, editorial director for Extensionmedia (which includes Chip Design and Embedded Intel magazines), has attended the Globalpress Summit for many years. He notes that companies continue to look for ways to engage the global editorial community – in addition to the US press.

Meeting with editors from all over the world is crucial since today’s EDA and semiconductor development environment are equally global. Further, a unifying theme among the global ecosystem is the need for system-level design and manufacturing solutions. This need is reflected in the current direction of the major EDA vendors, explains Blyler.

“The rise of embedded systems – both in SoCs and PCBs – coupled with lower power requirements, shrinking time-to-market windows and tighter revenue margins mean that EDA vendors must offer more than traditional tool flows,” he says. “To be competitive they need to provide everything from tools, to IP, integrated software stacks, RTOSes and even applications.”

A systems approach benefits EDA companies in another way. Such companies can now successfully participate in vertical electronic markets – such as medical, industrial, automotive and others.

Something good is happening in EDA – and it shows at the Globalpress Summit.

IBM’s Bernie Meyerson: New Computing Paradigms

Globalpress Electronics Summit 2010 / IBM’s CTO Dr. Bernie Meyerson: “New Computing Paradigms like Cloud Computing enable us for the future!”

The 8th annual Globalpress Electronics Summit conference is by invitation only and held April 26 – 29, 2010 in Santa Cruz. The world’s leading chip vendors, IP developers, EDA tools makers, MEMS manufactures, solar and green tech experts meet with over 50 print and online media. Major press from the US, Europe and Asia will be present at the event. Excitement and momentum is now growing in anticipation of the largest independent press event for the electronics industry.

We proudly announce Dr. Bernie Meyerson, IBM’s CTO and VP returns as a keynote speaker on Wednesday, April 28 to the event. He will speak about the challenges as IBM has rolled out programs around a Smarter Planet, and how Cloud Computing along with many new computing paradigms have enabled ourselves and our clients to face and surpass.

Brain drain – now beginning in California schools?

Silicon Valley has for years drawn intellectual and technical talent with promising opportunity and world famous universities and colleges. No brain drain here like from Germany and other European countries. Germans are so sick of the stifled and bureaucratic system and limited jobs that the US is no longer the only destination. The new dream does not need to be America; it is just as well India or China. What is weird is that German (my country of origin) is not known for welcoming foreign talents and yet many of my young country fellows are flocking East and West.
It made me start thinking as I was reading about young people who are fleeing the California University system for colleges elsewhere in the country and the world. It seems that the California education system is in such a mess that riots are happening, like in Berkeley during the 60’s – just for other reasons. We can only hope that the brain drain of our young people is only a hick up in these strange times.

The results are in: Asiapress Delegation 2009 generates an 80% coverage rate

Perhaps our Asian editors were starved for news from Silicon Valley, or it could have been that the presenting companies refined their messages with a more global appeal. 
The down-turn caused Globalpress to skip one Asiapress tour for the electronics industry. We all took a summer hiatus (Cecily with the kids and holding down the fort part-time, I went to Germany and Helga visited Austria). We were ready to go for Asiapress in December and booked this tour with our loyal larger companies including Altera, Cadence, Linear and Mentor Graphics, signed up new large players like Verigy, Fairchild and Intersil who gave us a try. What was new and encouraging, though, was that small companies including EVE, Sequans and MaxLinear had their coming out party with Globalpress. And not to forget: we brought Tanya on board.
In times where every dollar has to be warranted ten times, trust has to be established by new accounts and results must be shown – I am thrilled to report that the Asian editor group visiting November 29 – December 3, 2010 generated an average of 80% coverage results for each company. This is 10% higher than in previous years.  A good sign for the future?  Let’s hope so….

Editorial coverage -- I couldn’t say it better….

In times where everything is tight: budgets, editorial space and time,  corporate PR folks ask me frequently if this is the right editor for their particular market segment in the electronics industry. In the olden days I think it was called the “beat”.

Well – things have changed and very few “beat assigned reporters” are around and not only are thes editors expected to cover components, EDA tools, embedded systems, etc they now are also stretched to write for the print and online editions at the same time.  I just got this description from one editor attending our upcoming event explaining what his publication covers and what his special interest is. I couldn’t have said it better,

Tell me where he is from and win a prize.

“Our market is very diversified with companies in tele/datacommunication, process and automation industry, medico, cleantech (i.e. wind-mill production – the largest in the world), T&M, consumer electronics, military etc. So we have to cover a very broad field of technologies including test- andmeasurement. We do not cover production-technology very deeply – but of course focus on the very important link between development and production. I need to hear from start-ups chip-houses or system developers about new approaches and applications”

Your prize:

Win an extra 30- minute private interview with your Summit Sponsorship if you can name the home country of this editor. Deadline: February 26 to Irmgard@globalpresspr.com

Job cuts - please let it be over

I said some time ago that the profit driven, excessive, money-hungry sentiment here in the valley will drive us all out of business. A recent article in our local paper reviews a decade of job cuts is not over yet. The over indulgence and other ill fated decisions made this painful phase happen but the conflicting reports are driving me nuts. Profits increase at many companies, the stock market rises, the stock market falls (profit taking, anyone?) and yet still reports of cutting jobs. I am the first one to admit my mistake of holding on to employees too long and hoping for new business to come in the door. I did not see the downturn of 2002/2003 in its severity or maybe I didn’t want to see it. I value employees and paid dearly for it. The risk was all mine and I took it. Next time I will be smarter but the senseless job cuts to add to the profit margin is just painful to watch.