Mike's Blog: Sights from the 25th annual NIWeek

It's been a busy past couple of weeks for me here at Evaluation Engineering. On May 15-16, I attended the Embedded Systems Conference in Boston, MA, learning all about what's happening in the world of sensors and embedded design. After a few days back at home in Wisconsin, I flew down to Austin, TX, home of one of the biggest names in electronic test & measurement: National Instruments (NI). The company held its annual NIWeek conference and premier customer event during May 20-23, welcoming more than 3,000 engineers and scientists to Texas' state capitol. NIWeek was all about providing attendees a great chance to network and learn all about the current trends and challenges in test & measurement, as well as everything NI has been up to as of late and the latest NI solutions to help engineers meet customers' evolving demands.

This was my first NIWeek experience, and I felt truly spoiled, in that it was the event's 25th anniversary, and of course, NI would go all-out for its quarter-century milestone. The event's slogan, "Full Force Ahead," NIWeek appealed to engineers' inner geek with the theme of Star Wars, which was immediately apparent when attendees found a light-up toy lightsaber in the tote bag they received upon badge pickup.

Besides NIWeek's impressive lineup of demos, technical sessions, and keynote speakers, NI did a terrific job rolling out the red carpet for press attendees. The conference included a handful of exclusive press events, and had perhaps the best pressroom setup I've seen in my many conference experiences over the years. NI's marketing team coordinated three half-hour, one-on-one interviews for me with different NI department heads, and let me pick their brain about various trends in test matters and how NI is involved.

Stay tuned to EE over these upcoming weeks for coverage from those interviews and other events I took in at NIWeek. In the meantime, enjoy this collection of photos I snapped and Tweets I posted throughout the Austin Convention Center and beyond. NIWeek 2020 is set for May 18-21.